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PAPERS 



PEABODT MUSEUM OF AMERICAN AROHAEOLOQY AND 
ETHNOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

Vol. III. — No. 4 



THE MANDANS 

A STUDY OF THEIR 
CULTURE, ARCHAEOLOGY AND LANGUAGE 



G. F. WILL 

AND 

H. J. SPINDEN 



WITH FOrR MAPS, KIFTKHN PLATES AND SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
IN THE TEXT 



Cambridge, Mass. 
Published by the Museum 
AnonsT. 1906 







% 



PAPERS 



PEABODT MUSEUM OF AMERICAN AEOHAEOLOGY AND 
ETHNOLOGY, HARVAED UNIVEESITY 

Vol. III. — No. 4 



TIFE MANDANS 

A STUDY OF THEIR 
CULTURE, ARCHAEOLOCn' AND LANGUAGE 



G. F. WILL 

AND 

H. J. SPIN DEN 



WITH VOVK MAPS, FIFTEEN PLATES AND SIXTEEN II.MISTK ATIONS 
IN THE TEXT 



Cambridgr, Mass. 
Published by the Museum 

AlGTT.ST, lOOf) 



EDITORIAL NOTE. 



During the simiiner of 1905 the author.s of this paper, two 
Harvard students of the class of 190G, carried on the cx})lora- 
tion of an ancient Indian site in North Dakota. Dr. R. B. Dixon 
accompanied the party to North Dakota and remained with 
them for several days to direct the beginning of the field work. 
The exploration was a successful one and secured for the Mu- 
seum an important archaeological collection. On their return 
to college these students made a study of the Mandan culture 
and language under the guidance of Dr. Dixon. The following 
j^aper embodies the results of their researches — archaeological, 
historical and linguistic. From a comparative study of the 
archaeological material and the historical data, they draw the 
conclusion that the site explored is one of the ancient Mandan 
sites of which there is traditional and historical evidence. 

The four heliotype plates are from photographs taken by 
Mr. Will and Mr. Spinden. The other plates, maps and 
illustrations in the text are from drawings by Mr. Spinden. 

The exploration was under the auspices of the Peabody 

Museum and was made possible by the generous gift of Mr. 

Clarence B. Moore (H. U. 1873). 

F. W. Putnam, 

Curator of the Pealxuly Museum. 

Hakvahu University, 
June Ki, 1906. 



(81) 



PREFACE. 



In 1904 oiK' of llu" authors bccaiuo inlcrrstcd in (he history 
and culture of the Maiuhms, and later j)rei)ared an historical 
and (le.scriijtive sketch of this interestini;' peoi)le. in lilO") an 
opportunity for archueoloi;ical field work led to the formation 
of a small party of students, who carried on invest i.uat ions over 
a period of six weeks in the region formerly occupied by this 
tribe. The party consisted of Mr. R. K. Ilellmann (II. V. '()(>) 
and Mr. H. A. Nye (H. U. '00), in addition to the authors of this 
paper. While working over the archaeoloiiical and hist(»rical 
material collected, it was deemed advisal)le to add the con- 
sideration of available linguistic data. The result of these 
several investigations is endjodied in the following paper. 

Thanks are due to Mr. Martin liurgois for liis courteous per- 
mission to conduct exploration on his land; and also to Dr. 
Rawlings, Mr. L. Sperry and Mr. T. Griffin, all of Bismarck, 
N. 1)., and to Mr. E. R. Steinbrueck of Mandan, N. ])., for 
various favors. 

In the preparation of the paper, thanks are due tf) Professor 
]"'. W. Putnam for his kindly advice and criticism, and to Dr. 
W. C. Farabee for valuable service rendered in the identification 
of the animal remains and the measurements of the human 
bones. Above all, the authors desire to thank Dr. R. P. Dixon 
for his untiring aid and thorough sui)ervision. 

G. P. W. c^' H. J.S. 
Harvard I^niversity, 
June 15, 1906. 



(83) 



Id ManJun 




'dip 

Of The Missouri River 
-^ FROM 
The Cheyenne River To The Knife River 

COMPIUEO FROM 

The Field Charts oj W- Clark. 



nL - O- ^^OftOld Ankara 



Map. I, THE MIDDLE MISSOURI. 



IIE MANDANS. 



A Study ok their Culture, Archaeology and I.ANUuAaK. 



As yet very little archaeoloji-ical woi'k has been done on the 
old sites of tlie Mandan \illa.ii;es in North Dakota, althouf^h they 
are numerous, interestinsj;, and rich in material relatinji; to the 
past life of the people. The sites in some places have been 
injured l)v plowinc; and farminti', but most of them arc in j^ood 
condition, though in a precarious situation owinc; to the rapiti 
settlement and increasino; cultivation of the land about them. 
Many of the sites have been marred by relic hunters antl inex- 
perienced collectors, but none are seriously damaf:;ed. 

Besides the collection in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge 
which forms the l)asis of the archaeological section of this paper, 
collections from this region are also in the possession of: the 
American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Min- 
nesota State Historical Society, the North Dakota State His- 
torical Society and the National iMuseum in Washington. The 
Minnesota and North Dakota collections, while large and inter- 
esting, were not the result of careful, systematic work on any 
one site. 

No single site has yet been fully investigated, and the work 
last summer was the first attempt at a thorough exploration. A 
complete excavation of the entire site was beyond the resources 
of the expedition, which confined itself to a detailed examination 
of certain selected areas: There still remains a wide field for 
additional investigation. 

On the ethnological side little further research is possible 
owing to the practical extinction of the tribe. All that can l)e 
done is to assemble and sift the considerable mass of informa- 
tion to be gathered from the accounts of early tra\ ellers. 

(85) 



86 THE MANDANS. 

The position of the Manclans on the main travelled road up 
the Missouri to the fur country, the fact that their villages 
were one of the recognized stops on this journey, and their 
difference from the average Plains Indians which surrounded 
them, caused travellers to take especial note of them. More- 
over, there were many wonderful tales concerning them scattered 
abroad over the country, started probably by their own less 
cultured neighbors. Hence there are a number of historical 
accounts running from the early part of the ISth century, to 
the middle of the 19th. Only a few of these make any mention 
of the old village sites. 

The first known account of the Mandans is that of the Sieur 
de la Verendrye.^ As agent of a Canadian fur company, he 
made the trip across country from the Portage du Prairie to the 
Mandan villages in the fall of the year 1738. His account is 
some fifteen pages long, and is very interesting as giving the only 
picture of the Mandan period of prosperity which can be obtain- 
ed. He was led to make this trip to extend the fur trade and 
because of the wonderful stories related to him l)y the Assini- 
boines. Verendrye in his visit to the Mandans was disappointed 
because they did not come up to these tales. 

There is a long jump between Verendrye 's account and that 
of Lewis and Clarke, and this gap is bridged only by an account 
which cannot be found and is only known to exist by mention 
of it in a letter.^ It is said to be the story of a certain McKenzie, 
who in the employ of a Canadian fur company visited the Man- 
dans in 1772 and brought back a glowing account of them. 

Lewis and Clarke,^ however, are the next certain chroni- 
clers. They arrived among the Mandans in the fall of 1804, 
and spent the winter at Fort Mandan in the neighborhood of the 
Mandan villages. Their account is good, but the details are 
scattered and must be collected from a mass of other material. 
They furnish practically the only information concerning the 

1 nrymner: Report on the Canadian Archives, 1889, pp. 3-29. Mari>ry, P.: De- 
couverti'B et KtabUsBenicnt.s (Ich Francois daiiH I'Ouest et dans le Sufl de I'Anierlque 
septeiitrlonale, vol. Vf, i)p. 592 et .sei). I'aris, 18S(!. 

- (Quoted in Sclioolnraft : History, Condition and PrOHpectp, vol. HI, p. 2!)3. 

^ All the important editions of the .Journals have l)een examined; for couveu- 
ieuce, reference will usually be made to date of entry only. 



THE MANDANS. 87 

location and earl)' condition of the archaeological remains both 
of the Mandans and Arikara, and their account is thus doubly 
valuable. 

Next in point of time comes the journal of Alexander Henry, 
who visited the Mandans during the year 1S{)6. He was a trader 
for the Northwest Company and came to the Mandans in con- 
nection with the fur trade. He kept a fairly full journal, which 
was edited and published by Dr. Elliot Coues.^ In this he gives 
the details of several weeks residence among the Mandans and 
Hidatsa with reasonably full descriptions of man}' interesting 
details of their life. 

After Henry, came two men of lesser importance, l)ut 
who give some additional facts, although devoting most of their 
space to the Arikara. These are Brackenritlge ^ and Brad- 
bury.^ who came together, in 1810, and each of whom later 
printed an account of their journey. The former was an Amer- 
ican, the latter an l<]nglishman of scientific interests. 

The next authority, chronologically, is the artist and Indian 
lover, George Catlin.^ He visited the Mandans in the spring of 
1883, and has devoted almost two hundred pages in his " North 
American Indians" to an extended account of that tribe. All 
his Work is colored by his romantic imagination and deep love 
for the Indians, nevertheless in matters of actual fact he seems 
to be as reliable as any other authority, judging from compari- 
son with Maximilian and others. Catlin became a great sup- 
porter of the wild theory that the Mandans were of Welsh origin, 
little of this appears, however, in his main work, and his 
facts liaAc not been interfered with by his tlieori(>s. His draw- 
ings are i)robal)ly a little idealized, but they, too, afford a r(>ason- 
ably accurate source of information.'"' Withal it- may be said 
that while ('atlin's theories are to be (pu^stioncd, his facts are of 
value. 



> New I-i;;lit(ni the Kiirly IliHtiny ol tlio Greater Northwest; the Mjiiiuscrlpt .loiir- 
ii.'ils.)f Alexander Mfiiry . •mil O.iviil Thoiiii.sdii. 17iKt-IS14, :i voIh. New York, lSii7. 
- .loiiriial of ;i Voyaifc; up the River MisKoiii-i. r.aliiiiioie, ISKl, 
' Tiavelti in Interior Aineri<-a. Liverpool, ISIT. 

* North American Jniliaim. New ^ork, 1841. 

• Matthews: The Eartli Lod;?e in Art. Amer. A nth. (N. s.), vol. IV, pp. 1 
et 8ei|. 



88 THE MANDANS. 

After Catlin comes Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied.' 
During the winter of 1833-4 he passed several months among 
the Mandans, and has given us a minute and accurate account of 
the manners and customs of the people in so far as he obserA'ed 
them. In addition he has given one of the best vocabularies 
of Mandan and almost the only grammatical sketch of that lan- 
guage. This, though incomplete, is of great value. There is 
nothing romantic and imaginative in Maximilian's style and 
treatment of the Mandans, and he may be justly recognized as 
the best of the various authorities. 

Besides these more important chroniclers of the Mandans 
there is a group of minor authorities to whom something is due 
for an occasional fact. Most of these men have taken their 
accounts almost wholly from the above first-hand narratives, 
making in some cases small additions of their own. First in 
this group is Patrick Gass,^ a member of the Lewis and Clarke 
expedition. With the exception of McKenzie and Larocque,^ 
two Northwest Company men who tell us scarcely anything, 
he is the only one of the minor authorities who writes from per- 
sonal observation. The others are men who have only con- 
densed what has been gathered by reading, such are School- 
craft,^ Hayden,^ and Matthews." 

The remains which form a basis for the archaeological section 
of the present paper are part of a single village site. There are 
numerous other sites of a similar type scattered from the Grand 
River in South Dakota, to the north side of the Knife River in 
North Dakota. These sites are attributed to two different 
tribes, the Mandans and the Arikara. We may first consider 
the remains which seem to be of Mandan origin. 

The field in which these sites are found is restricted to an 
area along the Missouri River from a few miles south of Apple 

' Voyage en rAiiierlque duNord. Paris, 1843. 

2 .Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a corps of Discovery under the com- 
mand of Captain Lewis and Captain Clarke. Philadelphia, 1812. 

•* Journals in Masson, Les Bourgeois de la Campagnie du Nord-Ouest, vol. II. 
Quebec, 1889. 

* Op. cit., vol. Ill, pp. '248 et seq. 

" Contributions to the Ethnography and Philology of the Indian Tribes of the 
Missouri \'alley. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. (N. S.), vol. XII, i)p.43,') et seq. 

" Ethnography and Philology of the Ilidat^a Indians. Washington, 1877. 



THE MANDANS. 89 

Creek in Burleigh Co., Nortli Dakota, to a point some fifteen 
miles south of the Knife River in Mercer Co., North Dakota, 
and this field is again subdivided into the historical and the 
more or less traditional sites. Of the former little will be said. 
They are the remains of villa<:;es which Lewis and Clarke, Maxi- 
milian, Catlin, and other early travellers visited, and are situated 
on the Missouri about fifteen miles below the Knife River. There 
is another small set of remains intermediate between the tradi- 
tional and the historical, the stopping place between the former 
and the latter. Those intermediate sites are on the south side 
of the Missouri on the bluffs southwest of Washburn, and are 
rather closely connected with several Arikara sites. 

We are concerned here, however, with the oldest villages 
which were visited by onl}^ two white men who have left ac- 
counts, the Sieur de Verendrye, and McKenzie, whose account 
is mentioned by D. D. Mitchell in a letter to Schoolcraft. The 
question might be raised as to how it is known that the sites 
visited by Verendrye and McKenzie were the oldest ones. The 
statement of McKenzie that on his visit the Mandans lived in 
nine villages should suffice to establish this. According to all 
accounts, after the removal from the early sites the Mandans 
did not have at any time over five villages, and these soon shrank 
to even fewer. If McKenzie found nine villages in 1773 the 
Mandans must have been occupying the earlier sites, and cer- 
tainly if they were there in 1773, they were ^ery probably there 
in 1738. The further fact that Verendrye describes the Man- 
dans as being in full power and prosperity shows also that they 
had as yet suffered none of the losses by disease and war which 
caused their removal to the later villages. 

The location of these oldest Mandan sites comes up next for 
consideration. They were situated on the Missouri River near 
the Heart River, some above, some below, on both sides of the 
former, but the number of villages is uncertain. The location 
near the Heart is affirmed by all. Lewis and Clarke's Journal,* 
March 10, 1805, says, "The Mandans formerly lived in six 
(nine) large villages at and above the mouth of the Heart 
River." Maximilian^ says, "After the first alliance with the 

1 Tliwaites Edition, vol. I, p. 271. - Op. clt., p. i.iG. 



90 THE MANDANS. 

Hidatsa, the Mandans lived in eight or nine villages at and 
above the Heart River. ' ' 

The number of these ancient villages is a problem which it 
is impossible to settle definitely. Even an exact and thorough 
canvas of the ground cannot settle this, as changes of the river 
may have caused the entire disappearance of some sites. His- 
torical and archaeological evidence alike leave one in doubt. 
Verendrye, who visited but one Mandan village, says, "I was 
answered that there were five forts on the two banks of the 

river much larger than the one we are in. ' '^ But 

further on he makes this additional statement, "We noticed 
that in the plain were several small forts of forty to fifty huts 

but no one was there The forts in the plains 

were occupied during the summer to work their fields 

there was a large store of reserve grain there. ' '^ Next in point 
of time comes Lewis and Clarke's account, from which may be 
given three extracts. "These villages, nine in number are 
scattered for twenty miles, almost all that re- 
mains of them is the wall surrounding them and the fallen heaps 
of earth which covered the houses. ' '^ Again, ' ' Within the 
recollection of living witnesses, the Mandans were settled .... 

in nine villages about eighty miles below 

seven on the west and two on the east side of the Missouri. The 

two wasting before the smallpox and the Sioux united 

into one village and moved up the river opposite to the Ricaras. 
The same causes reduced the seven to five they immi- 
grated to the Ricara Nation " Also,^ "The 

Mandans formerly lived in six (nine) \'illages . . . four (six) on 
the west side, two (three) on the east. One of those on the east 
and the largest was entirely cut off by Sioux and smallpox."^ 
Here is disagreement of the same authority both in the total 
number of villages and in the relatiAe distribution on the two 
sides of the river. 

Catlin is the next writer who gives a version of the tradition, 
and in his North American Indians'"' is the statement that the 
Mantlans formerly lived down river in ten villages. Maximilian, 

1 Bryinner: ()i>.<'jt., p. 19. ^ i),ia., p >>:!. :' Oct. -Ji. 1804. 

■« Nov. '21, 1S04. s Mar. 1(1, 1805. Tliwaitef- Edition, I, )>. '271. « p- ^1. 



THE MANDANS. 01 

who next claims attention, gi\e.s at least two difYerent versions 
of the story. In one place* he makes the statement that the 
Mandans formerly lived in thirteen or more villaj^es, each had a 
name and they distinguished themselves thus: 1. Pheasant 
\'illage, 2. Village of (the people of) the West, 3. Bear Village, 
4. Badger ^'illage, 5. Prickly Pear Village, 6. Village of the 
Sulky Ones, because they separated from part of their nation 
to come up the Missouri. Here is a notable discrepancy be- 
tween the stated number of villages and the number of names 
given. In another place he states'^ that after the first alliance 
with the Hidatsa the Mandans lived in eight or nine villages: 
1. The South Village, 2. The Greatest Village, 3. The Scattered 
X'illage, 4. The Littlest Village, 5. The Village of Those Who 
Turn Back, 6. The Village on the Hill, 7. The Village of Those 
Who Separate their Legs, S. The Village of Those Who Tattoo 
Themselves. 

Thus the authorities not only disagree with each other, but 
even vary their own statements. Verendrye says six and a 
number of smaller ones; McKenzie, nine; Lewis and (Jlarke, 
from six to thirteen, at various times. Througli all of these 
accounts, nine seems to be the favorite number, but it might 
hardly be safe to fix it at that. Perliaps the discrepancy can 
best be accounted for by remembering Verendrye 's story of 
the summer villages, and the fact that Maximilian speaks of 
villages in the woods occupied for a short time during the worst 
of the winter. Another factor which may have a bearing on 
the matter is the old tradition mentioned by Maximilian' that 
the Hidatsa lived near the Mandans for a few years after their 
arrival, and before moving up to the Knife Hixcr. Con- 
sidering these facts together with the prevailing traditional 
number of nine, it might be concluded that at the time of resi- 
dence on the Heart River there were nine actual fixed villages, 
and an uncertain numl)er of smaller and less fixed camps. This 
can be only regarded as a hypothesis. 

Archaeological evidence is also conflicting on this subject. 
Lewis and Clarke noted a number of the remains in passing, and 
probably a series of quotations from them will best bring out 

> Op. cit., p. »70. - Ilii'l., p. 430. ^ Ibid., p. 4,J.'). 



92 THE MANDANS. 

the points of location which should be emphasized. In Allen's 
Lewis and Clarke are the following entries: 

"Oct. 19. 1S04. We camped on the north opposite to the 

uppermost of a number of round hills Near to one of 

these moles on a point of a hill ninety feet a})ove the plain 
are the remains of an old village " 

"Oct. 20. After twelve miles we encamped on the 

south at the upper part of a bluff immediately below 

are the remains of a village formerly occupied by the 

Mandans. ' ' 

"Oct. 21. At two miles from our encampment ruins 

of a second Mandan village on the north at the foot of a 

hill in a beautiful i^lain nearly opposite are re- 
mains of a third village on the south another two 

miles further on the north. At a distance of seven miles we 
encamped " 

"Oct. 22. We passed an old Mandan village on the south 

at four miles another on the same side at six 

we reached an island about one mile in length, at the head of 

which is a Mandan village on the north in ruins at 

eight miles are remains of another Mandan village on the south." 

Here is an actual description and more or less definite loca- 
tion of nine seemingly very noticeal)le village sites. 

Maximilian's^ notes on the subject come next with the fol- 
lowing extracts: " .... a chain of hills called the mountains 
of the old Mandan village, for one of their villages had 

been where the river cuts the chain It was at the foot 

of a chain of hills on a fine plain not far from the river. 

Here began the Mandan territory [Later on 

same day] We cut wood near the mouth of Aj^ple Creek. ' ' 

' ' Next day we came in sight of Square Buttes After 

eight hours we came to an old Mandan village on the right in 
the prairie. ' ' 

The archaeological information collected by this party in- 
creases the uncertainty. No complete archaeological survey 
was attempted and the location of sites other than those per- 
sonally visited will not be discussed. The accompanying map 

1 Op. cit., pp. 19 to 23. 



THE MANDANS. 93 

(Map 1) marks roughly the sites as judged from the above ex- 
tracts from Lewis and Clarke, and more accurately the sites which 
have been actually seen in the course of this investigation. The 
first site encountered in the above extracts is approximately on 
the south bank of Apple Creek above some round, clay buttes. 
This one was not visited. The second site is on the west side of 
the river at the base of the hill on which the infantry post of 
Fort Abraham Lincoln was formerly located. This site was 
examined, and it is accurately marked on the map. Of the next 
two sites one on the east and one on the west, but little canlje said. 
The first certainly is on the outskirts of the present town of Man- 
dan. The other one possibly has disappeared in the river. At all 
events, the only corroboration found, after having l)cen over the 
country, is a small site on the point of a bluff aljout one mile 
above the Northern Pacific Railroad bridge over the Missouri. 
It is not so plain as the others, nevertheless on a cursory in- 
vestigation and excavation by our party it showed signs of 
lengthy occupation. The next site mentioned by Lewis and 
Clarke is stated to be "two miles further on the north and a 
little off the river. ' ' Of this no trace has been found, unless it 
be that at the Sperry farm. This one is about five miles 
above the other site; it is on a bluff, bordering what was for- 
merly a creek, and is about two miles from the river. In some 
respects this fills the requirements, in point of distance, however, 
it hardly fits with the account. 

Of the locations of the three other villages on the west side 
of the river Lewis and Clarke's account does not furnish suf- 
ficiently accurate details, although a careful examination of the 
ground might make them clear. Only one more site is men- 
tioned by Lewis and Clarke on the east, and this, it is believed, 
is the one where the excavations hereinafter describefl were 
made. This last site was by their reckoning about thirteen 
miles above their Fort Abraham Lincoln camp, at the head 
of an island. The site at which the excavation was carried 
on is probably fourteen miles north of their camp. It is at the 
head of a broad place in the river where there is a small island 
now. Mr. liurgois, who has lived in the neighborhood for a 
number of years, says that formerly the island was much 



94 THE MANDANS. 

larger. This is the only widening of the river where an island 
could form within the distance stated, and lastly the site is in a 
very conspicuous situation on the top of a hill. The earthworks 
are larger than is usual around the other sites, and in every re- 
spect the place is apt to attract the attention of any one passing 
up river. 

At a distance of some three miles further up on the same side 
is another village site not quite as large. It is hidden now from 
the river by cottonwoods which have grown up in front of it; 
the site lies on the very edge of the first bench in a level plain. 
The finds there agree with those in the other places and it is 
very evidently a remnant of the same people. This gives four 
known sites on the east side. 

On every hand thus it is evident that there is great uncer- 
tainty. The number of sites is far from certain. The sites can- 
not be absolutely identified even when historically described — 
neither locations nor distribution according with descriptions 
given. The fact that the Mandans have a tradition of the 
Hidatsa living near them for a while also adds to the confusion. 
But the tradition as given by Maximilian^ states also that the 
Hidatsa were a roving people, and non-agricultural on their 
arrival. Consequently there would probably be little difficulty 
in distinguishing their sites. Moreover, the Hidatsa are sup- 
posed to have stayed there only four or five years, and then to 
have proceeded up to the Knife River. 

One more phase of the location question remains to be dis- 
cussed. The last disturbing feature in identifying the sites is 
the wandering of the Arikara who, as has been said, also left 
a number of village sites. It is probable, however, that the 
Heart River area was never occupied by them for any actual 
settlement. For this belief a number of reasons may be given. 
The Arikara are a branch of the Skidi Pawnee wdiich split off 
through some quarrel and started off independently, reaching in 
the course of time the Missouri River and ascending it by stages. 
Their villages were stationary and much like the Mandans but 
none of them seem to ha^e l^een as permanent as those of the 
latter. This fact offers one reason for supposing that such 

1 Oi). cit., p. 435. 



THE MAXDANS. 95 

Heart River sites as were seen were not of Arikara origin, for 
the ileposits in each phice show a Aery hing period of occupa- 
tion. If tlic Arikara had just separated from tlie Pawnees at 
the time of Verendrye's visit, they certainly did not have time 
to accumulate such deposits before Lewis and Clarke came. 

However, a ])rief consideration of what is known of their 
movements is still worth something though the evidence is nega- 
tive. \'erendrve* giAes t he follow iiig account of the Arikara: — 

"At a day's journey from the last of these were the l^mana 

then the Panani. These two nations . . . were now 

at wai- for four years, had alwaj'S .... been closely united . . . " 

This extract seems to i)lace the time of the separation at 
al)out 17o4. The Arikara were seen in 1S()4 wh(;n I>ewis and 
Clarke \isit('<l tlicni. and at that time they li\ed in tliree villages 
at the mouth of t he (irand Ki\er. On the way up, both on the 
Cheyenne and Moreau ri\ers old Arikara \'illages were noted and 
placed on the maj). Later in 1SP2 P)radbury in tlie d(;scription 
of his journey says that they still occupied the (irand River site. 
However, during the period before Lewis and Clarke's arrival 
other moves had been made. Lewis and Clarke' state that 
after smalljiox destroyed most of the Mandan nation, reducing 
them to one large and some small villages they moved up into 
the Arikara country where they liAcd many years in peace. 

Alexander Henry^ says that the Arikara and Mandans lived 
together in the same village thirty leagues down; they sepa- 
rated and the Arikara went down, the Mandans up till stopped 
by the Hidatsa. 

Maximilian'' states that thirty-seven years before, when 
Charboneau came, the Arikara lived on a point just above the 
largest Mandan village. After that they moved back down 
stream and the Mandans plundered their village. 

The only point in all the al)ove which seems to connect the 
Arikara with the Heart River sites is the statement by Henry 
that the two nations lived together at thirty leagues south. 
The circumstances of this seem to point to the site opposite 
Washburn, and it may be safe to consider his estimate of the 

1 Op. Clt., lit. -■ Nov- li, l'^l'4. 

3 Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 334. ' < »1>. <it., P- 33s. 



96 THE MANDANS. 

distance as an error in stating the story. The more so since 
details coincide with accounts of the Washburn site. 

Reviewing the whole question of the Ankara's locations, 
there are: — a site on the Cheyenne River, one on the Moreau 
River, one on the Grand River, and one some fifty miles above 
the Heart Ri^'er, near Washburn. In 1738 they were on or 
near the Grand, and there again in 1804. Maximilian says that 
before the smallpox the Mandans feared no one, but that the 
Arikara and the Cheyennes were their natural enemies. Tak- 
ing into account the last statement and also the fact that during 
the period of sixty-six years the Arikara established such a 
number of villages, and, moreover, that the Mandan alliance 
with the Arikara is placed in all the traditions as after the fall 
of the Mandans, it may be safely stated that the Arikara are 
not responsible for any of the Heart River sites. 

In the discussion the location and number of the sites has 
now been treated and there are points which should be 
emphasized. The only facts which are certain are that the 
Mandans formerly had at least six large villages in the neighbor- 
hood of the Heart River which were abandoned between 1772 
and 1804, and that there are at least six old village sites which 
can still be located in that region. In addition there are the 
following which, while not definitely proved, may be regarded as 
highly probable : that the Heart River sites are identical with 
the Mandan ones; that they cannot be attributed to the Hi- 
datsa with any reason ; and lastly that there is no proof for, and 
much circumstantial evidence against the belief that any of this 
group of sites is due to the Arikara. Details of culture, his- 
torical evidence, and archaeological finds, will reenforce l)elief 
in the mutual identity, and from now on all sites of the Heart 
River area will be considered as of Mandan origin. 



SECTION I. 

HISTORY, LIFE AND CUSTOMS. 

Orioin: — From the previously mentioned historical sources 
an attempt will now be made to giAe a brief account of the 
Mandans as they were seen by travellers. First, ho weAer, comes 
the discussion of their {)rifi;in and migration, for the most part 
theoretical, but supported to some extent by eAidence. The 
Mandans had a tradition of coming out of the earth, nothing- 
unusual in itself, but in relating this story they also told Maxi- 
milian that they came from the east out of the earth and struck 
the Missouri at the White Earth River in South Dakota. The 
eastern origin corresponds with that of the rest of the Siouan 
stock to which the Mandans, both linguistically and to a con- 
siderable extent in their culture, belong. The Ohio valley would 
seem to have serA'ed as a point of dispersal whence the Plains 
members of the Siouan stock are supposed to have moved in 
four successive migrations. The earliest group to lea-\e con- 
sisted apparently of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow, and of 
these the Mandan were probably a numl)er of years ahead of 
the other tri])es. The Mandans have fairly vivid traditions 
of the coming of the Hidatsa many years after the former had 
established fixed villages on tlie Heart River. 

They describe* the Hidatsa as a wild wandering ])('()])lc 
whom they taught to Ijuild stationary villages and to raise corn, 
pumpkins and other \egetables, and who soon moved up to the 
Knife River. If this tradition has any truth in it, it seems to 
establish the Mandans as the first nation in the successive 
Siouan migrations. 'J'he orderof migration is placed as follows: — 

1. Mandan, Hidatsa, Crow. 

2. Iowa, Otoe, Missouri, Winnebago. 

3. Omaha, Ponca, Osage, Kansas, Kwapa. 

4. Dakota, Assiniboine. 

' Maxiinili.'in : p. ♦3.'). 

(97) 



98 THE MANDANS. 

In the seventeenth century, the Dakotas, the last migrants, 
were already in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Part of group three 
was already on the plains when De Soto made his journey in 
1542. If some of the members of group three were already 
.established on the plains in the sixteenth century, the establish- 
ment of the Mandans on the Missouri presumably occurred at 
least as early and probably earlier. Thus the beginning of the 
westward movement of the tribe may be carried back into the 
fifteenth century. That the separation occurred thus early is 
not difficult to believe when one considers the wide divergence 
of language which has taken place between the different groups. 
To this evidence of an early establishment on the Missouri River 
must be added the fact that in the traditions and religion all 
episodes and beliefs are localized about the region of the Heart 
River. The gods created the Heart Ri"\'er region first, and 
there they soon placed the Mandans. Few of the traditions go 
further back than the Heart Ri^'er period, and little of the my- 
thology has reference to an}^ other region. Archaeological 
evidence certainlj^ corroborates this tradition of long occupa- 
tion, for 'at the Lincoln site the refuse forms a talus 
deposit at least three feet in thickness and extending 
thirty feet from top to bottom. At the site at which investi- 
gations were carried on the ground at every point showed 
potsherds and refuse to a depth of two and one half to three 
feet. The whole area of the village shows this accumulation, 
sometimes even deeper, a condition of affairs which only years 
of occupancy could produce. 

It has been shown that the Mandans lived on the Missouri 
for many years and that previous to this they probably oc- 
cupied some portion of the Ohio valley. The next question is 
how did they make the journey between the new and the old 
home. Did they cut across direct to the Missouri, as the second 
group probably did, or did they lead the way for the third group 
down the Ohio to the Missouri, and thence upward along the 
river? This question cannot as yet be satisfactorily answered. 
Catlin claims to have seen remains, similar to those on the Heart 
River, scattered all along the Missouri from St. Louis up. 
Clarke describes an ancient fortification near Bon Homme 



THE MANDAXS. 90 

Island in South Dakota and was told by traders that there were 
a number of others a})out that country. Maximilian was told 
that the Mandans first touched the Missouri at White Earth 
River in South Dakota, with which might be connected the 
reported existence of the remains of circular earth lodges in 
southern Wisconsin. Here are arguments for both theories; 
up to the present, however, the matter must remain unsettled 
until some careful investigation decides it. 

History: — In the earliest historical accounts the Mandans 
were firmly established in stationary villages in the neighbor- 
hood of the Heart River. Verendrye says that they lived in 
six large villages along the Mandan River, were a large and 
powerful nation and feared none of their neighbors, all of whom 
they dominated by their superior culture. Their manufactures 
were almost necessities among the other tribes, and in trade 
they were able to dictate their own terms. The forts he said 
were impregnable to Indians, being very well fortified, ^'eren- 
drye visited the smallest village in which he said that there were 
one hundred and thirty houses by actual count. His son, who 
visited one of the larger villages, declared that it was twice as 
large, judging from which it can safely be assumed that there 
were at least one thousand houses in the several villages. Lewis 
and Clarke declared that in the two villages of one hundred huts 
there were three hundred and fifty warriors; figuring at this 
rate there should have been at least fifteen thousand Mandans 
in 1738 dwelling prosperously in large and well-fortified towns. 
, For the next sixty-six years there is little information but 
their own tradition. Judging from McKenzie's narrative they 
continued prosperous and powerful up to 1772 at least. He 
declared that at that time they lived in nine villages, large and 
near to each other, antl could muster fifteen thousand warriors. 
The latter estimate is probably large, but the M'hole statement 
seems to show that no misfortune had come to them at thai 
date. Their remaining history is summed up in their own 
tradition as related to Lewis and Clarke, Maximilian and others. 

This tradition runs as follows: — Formerly they lived hap- 
pily and prosperously in nine large villages on the Missouri 
near the mouth of the Heart River. Six or seven of these vil- 



100 THE MANDANS. 

lages were on the west side and two or three were on the east 
side of the river. Maximilian gives names for fourteen villages 
which have been already quoted. For a great many years 
they li^'ed there when one day the smallpox came to those on 
the east side of the river. While this smallpox was still rife, 
the Sioux attacked and destroyed the east villages. The sur- 
vivors then proceeded up the river some forty miles where they 
all settled in one large village. Soon after the smallpox re- 
duced the villages on the west to five, and still later the_^ve 
went up to where the others were in the neighborhood of some 
Arikara, and settled in two A'illages. A great many people 
had been destroyed and they were now no longer strimg and 
fearless. They made an alliance with the Arikara against the 
Sioux. So far the tradition is our only authority, and all this 
had happened before the year 1796. 

In Henry and Schoolcraft is the statement that in 179G the 
two villages on the south united, and both the one on the south 
and the one on the north moved up ri\er some distance. From 
this time on there is a nearly continuous chronicle. Lewis and 
Clarke found the two ^'illages one on each side and about fifteen 
miles below the Knife River. At that time both villages con- 
sisted of forty to fifty lodges and, united, could raise about three 
hundred and fifty men. Lewis and Clarke describe them as 
engaging in continual warfare with the Arikara and Sioux 
against whom they united with the Hidatsa. The description 
given by Lewis and Clarke agrees with the conditions some two 
years later when Henry visited them. 

Thereafter no particular event marks the history of the Man- 
dans for some years. The Arikara went up and lived near 
them again for a time, but soon went back to the Grand River. 
Catlin found them in practically the condition in which Lewis 
and Clarke saw them, and so did Maximilian. Maximilian says 
they still li\'ed in the two tillages; the largest on the south side 
was Mih-toutta-Hangkouche and consisted of about sixty 
lodges. The smaller one, Rouhptare, was on the north and 
consisted of thirty-eight lodges. The villages were still fortified, 
though poorly, and there had been little change in the condition 
of the people. 



TlIK MANDANS. 101 

In 1S37, however, another great cahimity came upon the 
Majidans. Aiiain smallpox attacked them, rajjed for many 
weeks and finally left but one hundred and twenty-five souls.' 
These were taken in by the Arikara with whom they inter- 
married; finally they separated, ai^ain forming a small villat^e 
of their own at I^'t. Berthold. In 1850 there were three hun- 
dred and ei,sj;hty-five li\ ing. but these were very largely of mixed 
blood. To-day there are only a few of the full-blood .Mandans 
Jeft, although the latest olhcial returns give a total of two 
hundred and forty-nine. The culture has changed, the language 
lias changed, and as a nation the Mandaiis are practically 
extinct. 

Physical Charactrristics: — A discussion of the physical 
characteristics of the Mandans is rather interesting in \\v\\ of 
the fact that so many tales of their being a white race were circu- 
lated. Verendrye was told by the Assiniboine that he was on 
the wa}' to \isit peo))le white like himself. The Assiniboine 
word for the Mandans, oudcliijninnc, was the close relatixe of 
the Mandan word for wliitc man, ouachi. ("atlin Ixvame con- 
vinced of the white origin of the Mandans and \'erendrye and 
Henry both commented on their light complexions. 

Verendrye said he expected to see a different sort of people 
but they differed little from the Assiniboine. Then later: 
"This nation is mixed white and black. The women are fairly 
good looking especially the white, and many have blond 

hair The men are stout and tall with a 

good physiognomy. The women have not the In<lian physi- 
ognomy "^ 

Lewis and Clarke did not mention any particular difference 
between the Mandans and other Indians of the region, althougli 
Catlin relates that when he left St. Louis to ascend the Missouri, 
Governor Clarke told him that he was going among a strange 
people, half white. Henry, however, did notice some pecul- 
iarities in the Mandan physique. He says^ that in general the 
Mandans had not the coarse hair of Indians, it was finer, rather 
inclining to dark brown, and some had fair hair. The eyes of 
the Mandans were not as black as usual, but brown and some 

1 Schoolcraft: vol. Ill, p. '254. 2 op. clt., p. -21. ' Op. clt., vol. I, p. :{41. 



102 THE MANDANS. 

grey. He also says there were several children whose hair was 
perfectly grey, these were mostly girls. 

Catlin^ possibly exaggerates the physical differences. His 
account states that their personal appearance at once showed 
them as more than savages; there were many shades of com- 
plexion and hair; many women had white skin with hazel, blue, 
and grey eyes; they showed every shade of hair except red; 
some had hair perfectly white or a silvery grey, women more 
than men; the grey hair was very coarse, while the other hair 
was fine and soft. 

Maximilian took particular pains to ridicule the theory of 
white origin and especially that of Welsh origin. But even he 
admits the peculiarity of complexion seen at times. On this 
subject he said that they were usually brown or copper colored, 
some were yellow or whitish. When clean there were a num- 
ber who were nearly white with red cheeks; they had long coarse 
hair usually black, but many children had brown hair; there 
were families with grey hair; one family contained members 
with brown, black, grey, and white hair and eye-lashes.^ So 
much for color. There can be little question that there was 
a tendency toward light complexion among the Mandans, and 
all of the authorities, even Maximilian, express the opinion that 
this was not from contact with the whites. Among the Hidatsa 
and Crow as well is found the phenomenon of grey and white 
haired women and children, but there is no account of the 
brown, soft hair, and light skin further described by the earliest 
visitors to the Mandans. As to the cause of this light skin 
which appeared now and then it is difficult to decide. It seems, 
however, to place the Mandans among the tribes where partial 
albinism was of frequent occurrence. It is almost needless to 
say that there is absolutely no trace either in language or in 
physical characteristics of any European origin or admixture. 

Next is the question of size and general physique. Veren- 
drye^ says: — ' ' The men are stout and tall, generally very active, 
fairly good looking. ..." In a note appended to the location 
of an old Mandan village, on one of Lewis and Clarke's maps 
are the following words, "here human bones of large size." 

1 Op. cit., vol. I, p. 93. - Op. cit., pp. 374-.5. ■■ Op. cit., p. 21. 



THE MANDANS. 103 

Henry says/ the men were tall, stout and well built. Max- 
imilian also testifies along the same line: "Most of tlie Mandans 
are vigorous men, strong and large. ' '- And adds later that they 
were a strong race, a little above medium height, possibly not 
as large as the Minnetarees, robust, with broad shoulders.^ 
Judging from the information so far, the Mandans should be 
considered a large race, but on the other side there is the state- 
ment from Catlin'' that the stature of the Mandans was below 
the ordinary, but they were well proportioned. All of these 
observers but Catlin thus speak of the Mandans as above 
average height. 

For a further description of the Mandan physique there are 
only a few words from Maximilian,"' who says that they had a 
less aquiline nose than their neighbors, less prominent cheek 
bones than the Dakotas; thin noses and straight; long, narrow 
eyes of a deep brown, a little raised and contracted at the inner 
corner; large mouth, large angular jaws, various shaped heads, 
but foreheads no lower on the average than among Europeans. 

Villages: — The Mandans, as has been said, were a sedent- 
ary tribe and lived in fixed villages for long periods of time. In 
these villages they built lasting lodges of a type similar to those 
of the Arikara, Omaha, and other tribes lower down the Mis- 
souri, though with small differences in the details of construc- 
tion. The villages were usually well fortified, neat and orderly 
in the early days, but a considerable change seems to have come 
upon the people after their misfortunes, for there was much 
less care taken in the arrangement and fortification of the vil- 
lages in their later locations. The first description of the Mandan 
village is from Verendrye, who makes it appear almost a model 
town. As this is the only description of the Mandan villages 
during the prosperity of the nation, a summary of his account 
is here given:" 

"Many people came to meet us but nothing in comi)arison 
with what appeared on the ramparts and along the trenches. 
.... Their fort can only be gained by steps or posts which can 
be removed when the enemy threatens If all the forts are 

1 op. cit., p. 341. 2 Op. cit., vol. I, p. i'J. ' Ibl'l., p. 37'2. 

•* Op. cit., vol. I, p. 95. " Op. cit., p. 37. « Op. clt„ pp. 17--.>3. 



104 THE MANDAISfS. 

• 

alike, they may be called impregnable to Indians Their 

fortifications are not Indian Their fort is full of caves 

in which are stored such articles as grain, food I walked 

about their fort there were one hundred and 

thirty of them [huts]. All the streets, squares and huts re- 
sembled each other The streets and squares very clean, 

the ramparts very level and broad; the palisades supported on 
cross-pieces mortised into posts of fifteen feet. At fifteen points 
doubled are green skins which are put for sheathing when re- 
quired, fastened only above and in places where needed. As 

in the bastions at each curtain well flanked .... The 

fort is built on a height in the open prairie with a ditch upward 

of fifteen feet deep and fifteen to eighteen feet wide 

The 8ieur Nolant and my son arri^'ed [from the other village] 

The fort is on the bank of the river, as large again as 

this. The squares and streets were very fine and clean. Their 

palisade is in the best order and strength built in the 

same fashion as the one in which we were All their forts 

were alike some much larger than others." 

There is a little note from Schoolcraft^ to add, who says that 
about 1750 the Mandans lived on the Heart River in nine vil- 
lages surrounded by circular walls of earth, with no ditches. 
For this information, however, he cites no authority. 

For the later Mandan villages there is something of a de- 
scription from most of their visitors. Lewis and Clarke have 
very little to say on this subject, but Henry, Maximilian, and 
Catlin, all give good descriptions. Verendrye mentions squares 
and streets as though the early villages were arranged in some 
regular manner, while the very opposite seems to be true in the 
later visited places. 

A composite description drawn from the various sources 
will perhaps give the best possible picture of the larger village 
below the Knife River. The whole town, according to Maxi- 
milian, had a very small diameter. It was situated in an ex- 
tensive plain on a bluff about forty or fifty feet high on the 
south bank of the Missouri. From a distance it looked like a 
mass of mole hills, with numbers of grass blades growing be- 

1 Op. clt., vol. Ill, p. 248. 



THK MANDANS. 105 

tween, these were the scalp poles ami efligies of the fijocls. The 
ground on which the village was located was chosen for defence, 
the bluff on the river side went down perpendicularly, and the 
village was on a point jutting out into the river so that only 
one side needed protection. Across this point was a palisade 
and inside this was a ditch, three to four fool dooji according to 
Catlin. The palisade, he says, was of tiinhors oightoon foot 
high and one or nion^ f(>of in diameter, sot far enough apart to 
allow of shooting hetwoon. The warriors stayed in tho ditch 
in defending the palisade, (-oncoming this palisade Henry and 
Maximilian both nioiition that it was in very poor repair 
indeed, but Henry adds that he was told it could bo put in 
good condition very soon, every person in the \ illago lending 
a hand. There is yet no mention of bastions and ramparts 
such as Verendrye refers to, but Maximilian* descril)es some- 
thing similar. He says that at the corners of the palisade in 
four places were arcs or bastions, which formed an angle open 
toward the village, and said to have been built by the whites. 
These were intrenchments in the form of an arc, covered with 
a matting of willow and having loop holes. 

On entering the village it seemed to be a mass of circular 
houses from forty to ninety feet in diameter, set down hap- 
hazard closely crowded together. The houses were of earth 
with a smooth coating of pounded clay on the top, where most 
of the inhabitants were usually stationed. Before each house 
was a scaffold, fronting the covered entrance. These scaffolds 
were six feet high, twenty feet long and ten broad" and were 
used for hanging up corn and meat to dry.- They had a good 
floor, also, which was covered in the fall with drying beans. The 
staging for drying corn and meat was made as follows:' posts 
were set up on the scaffolds themselves, across these rafters 
were laid, and upon these cross rafters or poles the corn, 
meat and sliced squashes were hung. Before almost every 
house were one or more poles about twenty feet high, to 
which images of the gods, or sacrifices to them were 
attached. 

In the center of the village was a large open space of about 

1 Op. clt., p. 31. 2 Henry: vol. I, p. 340. » Ibid. 



106 THE MANDANS. 

four acres' and in the center of this was the "Ark of the First 
Man." This was in the shape of a hogshead, of phmks and 
hoops." It was open above, the planks were embedded in the 
ground, and the hoops were branches tied around to hold these 
together. The Mandans called this the Big Canoe^ and in it 
were some of their greatest medicines. This open space was 
the seat of all their festivals, dances and ceremonies, and here 
also they played their games of Chungkee or Skohpe. The 
space was closely surrounded by houses placed at ecjual dis- 
tances apart and all facing the center. The largest of these 
lodges on the south side of the area was the medicine lodge, and 
on a pole above this was a figure of skin, with a carved wooden 
head, which represented the Evil Spirit. 

About one quarter of a mile or less to the south of the vil- 
lage was a race-course; a hundred or more scaffolds on which 
the dead were deposited; slides for their games were also 
made outside the palisades. The ground about the houses was 
honeycombed with pits and caches in which most of the food 
and many of the valuables of the inhabitants were stc^'ed. The 
house roofs formed a general repository where bull boats, buffalo 
skulls, pottery, sledges and people were scattered promiscu- 
ously over the r(^unded surface, around the edge of which Brad- 
bury says they built a sort of low railing. 

Houses: — The houses themselves were many times de- 
scribed, sometimes with considerable variation, and it is highly 
probable that there was more or less variation of construction 
in the minor details. They were distinguished from those of 
the Arikara in that the ground was first excavated, and that 
they were rather hemispherical, whereas the houses of the latter 
were more conical, like those of the Pawnee. Catlin^ places 
the average size of the houses at from forty to sixty feet in 
diameter, depending on the size and importance of the family, 
and Henry^ tells us that the one in which he himself stayed was 
ninety feet in diameter. ^ .1 

1 Henryrvol I,p.;!38. "Sixty feet across," MiiKimiliaii : p. 380; "One hundred and 
fifty feet," Catlin : vol. I, p. 88. 

- Catlin Klves this as eiglit to ten feet high, Maximilian as four or five. 
3 Catlin: vol. I, p. 88. * Op. cit., vol. I, p. 81. 

« Op. cit., vol. I, p. 338. 



THE MANDANS. 



107 



The first step in the buiUling of houses was the excavation 
of the ground where the floor was to be, to a depth of about one 
and a half to two feet, the earth being thrown out in a bank all 
around the rim of the excavation. Around this circle, against 
the edges were placed eleven to fifteen great posts, four to six 
feet high. Logs were laid across from one to another of these, 
and on the outside were slabs slanting in and resting against 
these cross logs. This arrangement is shown in Morgan's dia- 
gram reproduced in Figure 1. Also on these cross-beams rested 
the rafters. These were long poles* six to ten inches thick, the 
small end pointing in, placed very close together. Four or 
five^ great posts, five feet in circumference, fifteen feet high, and 
fifteen feet apart formed an inner circle. The rafters rested on 




Fig. 1. MANDAN IIOISK. (After Mor>fan.j 



large squared beams which were laid horizontally on this inner 
circle of large posts. Catlin says that this inner circle of large 
posts supported the rafters at about their center. Henry says 
that these posts supported the end of the rafters, and the re- 
maining space was filled by placing timbers criss-cross over 
the cross-beams leaving a smoke hole in the center. On top of 
the rafters was placed a matting of willows, six inches thick, 
fastened together compactly and secured to the rafters. Over 
the surface then one to three feet of earth was placed, and the 
sides were banked with earth three or four feet high, and four 
feet or more thick. Catlin says that the whole surface was then 
covered with clay, hard and tougii, which was impervious to 
water. 

' Henry gives their length as twelve to lifteen leet. 

2 According to Catlin, Maximilian and Henry both give four. 



lOS 



THE MANDANS. 



The doorway was five feet broad and six feet high, with a 
covered way of the same height, but seven feet broad and about 
ten feet long. The door itself was a raw buffalo hide dried on a 
frame which was hung from above on a cord, at night this was 
barricaded, and when the family was away the porch was closed 
with branches and sticks. This porch was covered with earth 
like the house itself and led downward to the lower level of the 
floor. It is not shown in any of Catlin's drawings and he does 
not mention one except in the medicine lodge, there he says it 
was eight to ten feet long, was hidden with a double screen, and 
guarded l)y armed sentinels. 

Verendrye speaks of the (Ha ision of the house into compart- 
ments and we find that the same thing existed when Henry was 

there. Lewis and Clarke, and 
Gass also mention that one 
part of the interior was cut 
ofT and used as a stable for 
the horses. Catlin, however, 
mentions no such cutting up 
of the interior, nor do his 
pictures show anything of the 
sort, but Maximilian, who 
visited them in the winter, 
gives a diagram of the winter 
house showing several com- 
partments; this diagram and 
its key is reproduced in 
Figure 2. The main interior 
arrangements of the house 
in spite of the discrepancy 
on these latter points are 
agreed on by all. In the 
center under the smoke hole 
was the fireplace, a round 
hole five feet in diameter and a foot or more deep. This 
was curbed with stones placed upright about the edge.^ 
Around the walls was a series of beds and about the fire 




Fig. 2. MAM) AN HOUSE. 
(After i\[axiniilian.) 
(I, Fireplace; hbbb, Central posts sup- 
porting roof; c c c c, Se.'its; d d, Screen or 
wind i)reak; e e, Partition behind which 
horses were kept;/, Door of skin; g. En- 
trance; /* h, Covered porch; /, Bed; k k k k. 
House walls. 



1 Maximilian, p. 387. 



THE MANDANS. 



109 



over which a pot hung, were low seats of flexible willow 
boufi'hs. 

Henry's description^ of the interior is probably the best, 
and is substantially as follows: on entering you first saw a 
kind of triangular apartment on the left fronting the fire, and 
leaving an open space on the right; this was to hold firewood. 
The partition was of squared planks twelve feet high, well calked 
to keep off the cold from the door. Between this and the fire 
was a space where the master sat on a mat of small willows 
supported as a sort of sofa and covered with a buffalo robe. 
On this the man sat all day and received his friends. To the 
left of the host began a range of beds. The master occupied 
the first bed with his favorite wife, then a wife occupied each 
of the next few beds, then 
came the young people. 
These beds were all built 
alike^ and adjoined each 
other lengthwise. At the 
bottom of the hut facing the 
master stood his medicine 
stage containing everything 
he \alued, and most import- 
ant among them was a pair 
of bulls' heads daubed with 
earth. Here also hung his 
arms, ammunition, scalps and 
the like. Next to the stage 
was the mortar, fixed in the 
ground, and a pestle. The 
rest of the hut from there 
to the door was separated 
off for the horses at night. 

To this description might l)e added a few details from Cat- 
lin. He says that the cabins usually held a family and all its 
connections, from twenty to forty people. The betls were 
raised about two feet from the fioor, were usually ten or twelve 
in number, four or five feet apart, and went all tlie way around. 

' Op. (it., vol. I, pii. 3;i!)-4fi. - See for deHcriptloii, \>. 113. 




Kl(. 



3. MANDAN lloCSK. 

(After Morfjaii.) 



110 THE MANDANS. 

Between every pair was a large post. An elevation showing 
some of the details is reproduced from Morgan in Figure 1, and 
a ground plan, in Figure 3. 

The sedentary character of the Mandans and the fact that 
they practiced agriculture led to the development among them 
of several cultural features not found among the purely hunting 
tribes. In common with most sedentary tribes they made use 
of caches or storage pits. Henry^ gives a description of 
them saying that, in the fall after harvest, the corn was dried, 
shelled and put in deep pits. These were about eight feet deep, 
with a mouth just wide enough for a person to get in, but the in- 
side was hollowed out larger and the sides and bottom were lined 
with straw. The cache contained twenty to thirt}^ Ijushels of 
beans or corn where it kept for several years. The caches were 
scattered everywhere about the village. Catlin mentions 
caches, saying that they placed corn in pits six or seven feet 
deep, jug shaped, and tightly closed at the top. 

Dress : — The dress of the Mandans in general was much like 
that of their neighbors, at the later period of their history at 
least. There were however some minor differences. Veren- 
drye says that at his ^'isit the men went naked, except for a care- 
lessly worn buffalo robe — not even wearing a breech cloth. The 
women wore very little as a rule, their only article of attire 
being an apron about the waist, a hand's breadth wide and a 
foot long. But he adds later that some of them wore a gown 
of very soft deerskin. It is probable that other articles of 
dress were borrowed from their neighbors as time went on. 
) The men and women both began the day with a bath, after 
which the body was carefully oiled with castoreum. For any 
ceremonial or feast the bod)^ was also painted in colors, these 
being mixed with grease. x\fter the bath the face and hair were 
nearly always whitened. The men in Maximilian's time usu- 
ally wore a breech cloth, of black and white cloth, and mocca- 
sins with little or no ornamentation. The upper part of the 
body was usually naked as they seldom wore the leather shirt 
used in many other tribes. Even in the winter, Maximilian 
says they wore only the buffalo robe over the upper half of the 

I Op. cit., vol. I. p. 3(;(). 



THE MANDANS. Ill 

body. The small boys went naked but the girls wore a leather 
dress similar to those of the older women. The woman's 
dress was the buck-skin tunic which went just below the knee, 
a girdle held it at the waist, the sleeves were open and the base 
of the skirt was often fringed. Bead necklaces and earrings 
were worn, and leggings which did not reach to the knee. The 
men also wore leggings which were the counterpart of those 
found among the other plains tribes. 

Although the Mandans ordinarily dressed very plainly, yet 
for the feasts and ceremonies they arrayed themselves as gor- 
geously as did any of their neighbors, and in practically the 
same way. Then they wore richly embroidered leather shirts, 
moccasins covered with quill work, necklaces of elk teeth, bears' 
claws, odorous roots and large glass beads, with fine painted 
and embroidered robes, tobacco pouches, quivers, medicine 
bags, and all the paraphernalia of the plains ceremonial dress. 
Scalps were used as among the Dakotas, ceremonial pipes and 
bows were carried. The head-dresses of war eagle, hawk, crow, 
and raven feathers were worn by members of different societies 
and occasionally the head-dress of two small polished pieces of 
buffalo horn was worn. This last was found frequently among 
the Dakotas. Antelope and deer hoofs were used often as a 
fringe of bangles along the shirt hem or the sides of the leggings. 

The Mandans had a peculiar method of dressing the hair, 
unlike other Siouan tribes but ver}' much like the Arikara. 
The hair of the men was allowed to hang down to the 
thighs, or even to the knees, it was separated into a number of 
strands, each of which was stuck along its whole length, two or 
three inches apart, with lumps of mixed glue and colored clay, 
making nearly solid plaits one and a half inches tliick. Often- 
times these plaits were pieced out with beaver skin strips or 
hair from scalps. One lock of hair hung down forward over the 
nose, and this was unornamented except for a red ribbon tied about 
it. Tiiere were two copper strips covered with blue and white 
glass beads woven with the hair on the sides. These hung by 
one end and were also decorated with dentalia. On the back 
of the head was an ornament, flat, three or four inches thick, of 
wood or twisted metal wire. It was fastened to the hair and 



112 THE MANDANS. 

hung down to the shoulders. It was covered with quill work 
in different colors. On its top was placed horizontally an eagle 
feather the base of which was covered with red cloth. The 
usual Siouan head-dresses were also worn. In every day life, 
however, Maximilian says the hair was knotted up in a 
tuft. The Mandan men tattooed, but never on more than one 
half of the body. Usually the right breast and upper arm was 
tattooed with black parallel lines, accompanied by a few other 
figures. Occasionally the fore-arm and some of the fingers were 
tattooed. Occasionally also the women tattooed, but to only a 
small extent. Ermine was used in nearly all of their finest 
dresses, and tails of other animals as well as different sorts of 
bird feathers had especial signification in ceremonial or war 
costumes. Altogether, as Catlin says, the dress of the Black- 
feet, Sioux, and Mandans was practically alike. The great 
noticeable difference seems to be that the Mandans had 
much less regard for clothing than did most of their neigh- 
bors, they had a tendency toward simple apparel, and the 
buffalo robe was their original and only absolutely necessary 
garment. 

Weapons: — The arms of the Mandans as well as their other 
culture features were much like those of their neighbors. They 
used the customary things — bows and arrows, lances, shields, 
knives, and tomahawks, and had in addition a peculiar weapon 
of their own called a bow-lance. The knives and arrow points 
were at first of stone as were the axes and tomahawks, but 
stone implements soon fell into disuse when steel ones were 
obtained. The Mandan bows were usually of elm or ash wood, 
and rather short, with cords of twisted sinews. Occasionally, 
however, a bow of bone or horn was seen. Catlin describes 
such a one. It was short and had a sinew backing, while the 
cord was matle of three twisted sineM's. With the bow was 
usually a quiver of mountain lion, wild-cat, or wolf skin, the 
whole hide being used. The arrows of the Mandans were much 
better made than those of their neighbors. They were feathered 
with hawk and eagle feathers which were attached in a short 
spiral, a red line wound rf)und the arrow in a spiral from barb 
to base. There were hunting points and war points: the for- 



THE MANDANS. 113 

mer unbarbed and securely fastened to the shaft, the latter 
barbed and loosely attached. 

The lances were two-edged points fastened to a shaft of ash 
wood, some six or eight feet long, ornamented with tufts of eagle 
plumes. The knives were at first of stone, but were soon replaced 
by the European steel ones. The tomahawks were of seAeral 
sorts and are all duplicated among those of the other Sioux 
tribes. The shield was an important part of a man 's equipment, 
it was of buffalo hide whitened with white clay and with a large 
painting of the owner's medicine on the front. The l)ow-lance 
was a purely ceremonial weapon and was passed down from 
father to son to be used in the dances. Maximilian describes 
it as a long bow with a spear point on one end, the whole deco- 
rated elaborately with eagle plumes and other ornaments. 

Manufactures: — The beds of the Mandans were built up 
from four posts sunk in the earth to form a rectangle of suitable 
size, with poles lashed across from one to the other, about one 
foot above the ground. Over the cross poles a green buffalo 
hide was stretched and allowed to dry, thus forming a springy 
foundation; around the sides and across the top hides were also 
stretched, giving the whole bed the appearance of a large box. 
A small opening was left in one of the sides through which to 
enter, and the whole interior was piled with buffalo robes. 
These beds held several persons. 

The Mandan boats, bull-boats they were called, also merit 
a description. They were circular, made over a frame of bent 
willows, which consisted of two hoops held in position by cross 
pieces; over the whole a raw buffalo hide was stretched, hair in, 
and sewed to the upper rim. They were about six feet in diame- 
ter and could carry very heavy loads. For a paddle a pole 
some five feet long was used. It was split up the end where a 
flat board about two and a half feet long was inserted and bound 
on. The boat was paddled from a standing position, and made 
half a revolution at eA'ery stroke. This same sort of boat was 
used by the Arikara and Hidatsa. 

For the rest their material culture did not differ greatly 
from that of the surrounding nomadic tribes, only a brief enum- 
eration therefore of the manufactures and utensils is necessary. 



114 THE MANDANS. 

Verendrye mentions their skill in making such things as 
painted ox-robes, deer skin, dressed buckskin, and ornamented 
fur and feathers, painted feathers, peltry, wrought garters, 
circlets for the head, and girdles. They certainly understood 
the art of dressing skins, though perhaps other nations equalled 
them. All their A'isitors speak of the ornamented robes for the 
decoration of which porcupine quills dyed various colors, or the 
pigments themselves, as paints, were used at first, though beads 
came gradually to take their places. The ornamentation con- 
sisted usually of representations of animals, and pictographic 
records. When leather got wet, it was beaten and rubbed with 
white clay which they always carried with them. This kept 
the robes soft. Then there were medicine bags, tobacco 
pouches, sheathes for knives and bows, all of skin, painted or 
embroidered with quills, such as are seen over the whole plains 
area. They had leather bridles for their horses, sometimes 
embroidered, and used a saddle, similar to that of the Dakotas. 
The horses were caught by means of long raw hide lariats which 
the Indians made themselves. 

Whistles were also necessary articles to those belonging to 
the societies. Maximilian^ describes them as "long wooden 
whistles at whose lower end an eagle feather on a string dangles." 
He says they also had large flute whistles, twenty inches long, 
with holes to "S'ary the notes by application of the fingers. Be- 
sides these were the war whistles, usually made from the wing 
bone of some large bird. Other articles of bone, necessitated 
by the great use of skins, were the bone scrapers, needles and 
awls with which each house was profusely supplied. 

Almost the only agricultural implements which they used 
were hoes. These were the shoulder blades of buffalo or occa- 
sionally of elk, which were cut down and to which a crooked 
stick was fastened as a handle." 

Among their cooking utensils, which were used in every hut, 
were spoons and ladles of bighorn and buffalo horns. Veren- 
drye says some of these ladles held as much as three pints. 

So far as the accounts go the Mandans did not make any 
textile fabric, though the Arikara are known to have made 

1 Op. cit.,'p. 416. - Henry: vol. I, p. 343. 



THE MANDANS. 115 

garters and belts of buffalo hair. But they did make strinj; 
and willow matting. There is an account of a mat used on the 
seat before the fire. Henry' says that the mat was of small 
willows of equal size, fastened together by thread of nati\e make 
passed through each stick about one foot apart. The mats 
were ten feet long, four feet broad, and the two ends for two 
and a half feet were raised slanting from the ground and sup- 
ported by a kind of sofa. Verendrye says they made wicker 
work very neatly, fiat, and in baskets. 

The Mandans used snow^-shoes which were only about two 
and a half feet long." For their dyes and paints they made use 
of the following: red obtained from buffalo-berries, black from 
sunflowers, and yellow from a kind of moss which came from 
the Rocky Mountains. I31ue, red, black, yellow and white 
clays were also used. 

An indispensable article of the full dress was the fan. These 
were made from the large plumes of the eagle, hawk, crow, and 
a number of other birds, depending on the rank of the owner. 

The Mandan pipes differed a trifle from those of their neigh- 
bors, being less ornate.' They were either of stone, black clay, 
or yellow clay painted black. The stone pipes were obtained 
mostly from the Dakotas. Pipes with wooden bowls, lined with 
stone, were also used. The stem was long and round or flat. 
Catlin describes one pipe as of red steatite (catlinite) with a 
stem three feet long, half its length wound with braids of por- 
cupine quills. They also had the calumet pipe which will be 
considered in connection with the ceremonies. 

The Mandans and their neighbors the Arikara and Hidatsa 
made glass beads, an art which they claimed was taught to 
them by the Snake Indians. They did not make the glass but 
used glass obtained through the whites. Lewis and Clarke'' 
give a short account of the manufacture of beads which is ex- 
ceedingly interesting. It may be thus summarized. The 
secret is known only to a few. Glass of several colors is poun- 
ded fine, each color separate; this is washed in several waters 
until the glass stops staining the water. They then take an 

• Op. cit., vol. I, p. UO. - Miixiniiliau : p. :i'M. 

8 Ibid., p. 391. * March 10, 1805. 



IIG THE MANDANS. 

earthen pot of some three gallons, put a platter in the mouth 
of the pot which has a nitch on its edge through which to 
watch the beads. Then some well seasoned clay, mixed with 
sand and tempered with water till of the consistency of dough, is 
taken, and from it are made a number of little sticks of the size 
of the hole desired in the bead. These are heated to a red heat 
and cooled again. The pot is also heated to clean it. Then 
small balls of the clay are made to serve as pedestals for the 
beads. The powdered glass, enough for one bead, is dipped into 
the palm of the hand with a little wooden paddle, where it is 
paddled into an oblong form, the clay stick is then laid across it 
and the glass is wound around the clay. The whole is then 
rolled in the hand till regular. To put in other colors the other 
end of the paddle stick, which is sharp, is used to make a hole 
which is then filled with another colored glass. A hole is then 
made in the center of each pedestal and a bead stuck in it. 
Then the platter is put in the coals and the pot is inverted over 
it; dry wood is placed aljout the whole and burnt; the 
beads are watched through the hole in the bottom of the pot, as 
overheating is harmful. When the beads are whitish red and 
grow pointed, they are taken off. The clay center is picked out 
with an awl. 

Wooden bowls were used to some extent by the Mandans/ 
They also made very excellent pottery which was mentioned by 
nearly all their visitors. Verendrye says they had earthen 
pots which they used for cooking their food. Catlin speaks of 
earthenware dishes made in great quantities by the women 
and modelled into a thousand forms. He says they were of a 
tough, black clay, very hard, and were baked in prepared kilns. 
Henry^ says they used large earthen pots of clay which was 
plentiful near the village. The pots held from one quart to five 
gallons. Nothing greasy was cooked in them as they claimed it 
cracked.them. The bottoms of the pots were convex and they were 
set in the fire in a hole in the ashes. Coils of bois blanc fibres 
with a hole in the center, and of different sizes, were used to stand 
the pots on when off the fire. Some pots had two ears or 
handles. 

1 Catlin : vol. I, p. 114. - Op. clt., vol. I, p. 328. 



THE MANDANS. 117 

Maximilian* also gives a description of tlic pottery; — "They 
make pots of different shapes and sizes. The clay is slate- 
colored and turns a yellowish red in the fire. It is mixed with 
powdered granite which has been burnt. A lar^c round stone 
is stuck into the clay which is prevented from spreading- side- 
ways. It is polished with a piece of poplar bark. When 
shaped, it is filled with dry chips, and also surrounded by them 
on the outside, then burned. They use no enamel on the pots. '' 
This pottery has not been made for a number of years, and 
there are only a few whole samples of the cruder sort in collec- 
tions. 

Agriculture: — The Mandans were, above all, an afj;ricul- 
tural people, far more so than any of their neighbors. They 
have a tradition of having taught the Hidatsa how to cultivate 
the soil, and even the Ankara, who are said by some to have 
taught the Mandans, were somewhat inferior to the latter in 
the pursuit of agriculture. The Mandans were dependent on 
the soil for nearly all of their food, according to Verendryc, in 
1738. By the time Lewis and Clarke came, however, they were 
about on the dividing line between being a hunting and an agri- 
cultural nation. They were not the hunters that their neighbors 
the Hidatsa were, because they w^ere too weak in numbers to 
venture on long hunting trips. The agricultural ceremonies 
and dances shared honor with those of hunting, and the Old 
Woman Who Never Dies, or the Corn Mother, was an impor- 
tant personage in the ceremonial life of tlie people. 

The land about the Mandan villages, smooth ri\er bottoms 
and very fertile, was always extremely easy to work, and re- 
quired but the crudest implements. Consequently the culti- 
vation was fairly extensive. Maximilian says that each family 
cultivated three fields of four or five acres each, which were 
never fenced. The farms were shifted to a new place when the 
old area began to yield smaller crops. There seems to have 
been no attempt at fertilization, and it was hardly necessary in 
view of the great abundance of good land. Henry^ gives an ani- 
mated picture of the Mandan farming operations: 

"We passed extensive fields of corn, beans, squashes and 

1 Op. cit., p. .390. = Op. cit., vol. I, pp. .MU ct Hr.], 



118 THE MANDANS. 

sunflowers. Many women and children were already employed 
in clearing and hoeing their plantations .... On each side were 
pleasant cultivated spots some of which stretched up the rising 
ground on our left, whilst on our right they ran nearly to the 
Missouri. ' ' 

The Mandans used to raise enormous quantities of produce 
from these crudely tilled plots, and the most of it was stored 
away in the caches. Each of these caches would hold from 
twenty to forty bushels of corn and beans, and the number of 
them was very large. Maximilian says that there was often from 
five hundred to eight hundred bushels of corn, alone, in the village. 
In view of his other statements this seems a very moderate 
estimate. The supply was large enough so that it was not only 
eaten by the people, but in the winter was sometimes fed to 
the horses.' Lewis and Clarke speak several times of buying 
corn of the Indians in lots of thirty bushels or more. 

The methods of cultivation among the Mandans, though 
crude, were still above the most primitive types of tilling. The 
work in the fields was begun in May. Little trenches were 
made in rows, the grain was put in these and covered. During 
the summer the soil about the plants was dug up from three to 
four times. The harvest usually came in October and for that 
work every member of the village lent a hand, this being one 
of the few times when the men took any part in the domestic 
work. Between the rows of corn, rows of sunflowers were 
usually planted. The only noticeable feature in this descrip- 
tion is the fact that the garden plots were cultivated and cared 
for during the summer, when most of the semi-agricultural 
tribes lower down the Missouri were absent on long hunting 
excursions. 

The latitude of the Mandan villages required very hardy and 
quick-ripening vegetables; and we find that the Mandans had 
perfected a number of plants suited to the cold and dry climate 
of the region. The crops were often poor because of drought 
or early frost, but they never failed entirely.^ The main pro- 
ducts were corn, beans, squashes, sunflowers and tobacco. 
These were all grown when Verendrye visited them, and were 

' Op. cit., p. 389. 2 Ibid., p. 347. 



THE MANDANR. 110 

Still .crrown at the time of Maximilian's visit. Corn, however, 
suri^assed all the rest in importance. It was a small variety, 
five or six feet high, but was not the common, mottled "Squaw 
corn" found in the region later. Maximilian enumerates .seven 
distinct sorts, as follows: — white, yellow, red, spotted, black, 
sugar, yellow flint, and red and white striped. The sweet corn 
was cut in the milk, then dried on the scaffolds in the sun and 
kept in the caches. The other corn was not gathered till it was 
ripe; it was then shelled and also put in the caches. Corn was 
eaten as succotash with beans, boiled as hominy, ground up 
into coarse flour and made into cakes, and also as a sort of gruel 
and in sc^■cral mixtures with wild fruit. 

The beans, as to the cultivation of which there is little infor- 
mation were, nevertheless, of considerable importance. Maxi- 
milian' gives a number of varieties of these also; there were 
white, black, red, and speckled beans. These were not gathered 
until ripe, and were then spread out on the flooring of the scaf- 
folds to dry, after which they, too, were stored in the caches. 
The beans were used in about the same way as the corn, both 
of them being mixed in many dishes. There were t\\e varieties 
of squash or pumpkin, yellow, black, striped, long, and thick 
skinned. These were usually cut up into thin slices, hung by 
cords from the scaffold rafters and dried in the sun. They, too, 
were then stored away for future use, to be boiled with beans 
and corn or separately, or eaten with some of the wild j^lums 
or choke-cherries. 

The sunflowers, Maximilian says, seemed to differ little from 
those ordinarily cultivated in civilization. There were three 
kinds, red .seed, black seed, and a small seeded sort. There 
is no account of the method of preparation, but Maximilian 
tells us that very good cakes were made from them. The Man- 
dan tobacco, which was used also by the Hidatsa and Arikara, 
while belonging to the Nicotiana, was a small species. Veren- 
drye says that the tobacco was put up in rolls, that they cut it 
green and used it, stalks and all ; he said it was not good. Later 
authorities do not agree on its prei)arati()n, however, as both 
Maximilian and Henry say that it was cut ripe and ground up 

1 Op. clt., p. 392. 



120 THE MANDANS. 

fine. It was usually smoked mixed with the bark of the so-called 
red-willow or Coriius. Henry says that the blossoms were used, 
and were dried on a piece of pottery before the fire. Lewis 
and Clarke and Gass both mention this -tobacco and agree with 
Verendrye that it was not good to those who were accustomed 
to European tobacco. The Mandans themselves soon discarded 
their own variety, raising only a little each year to use in cere- 
monials. 

Although hardly coming under agriculture, still as a related 
matter, it might be well to mention the wild vegetables and 
fruits which were so much used by the Indians of the region. 
These were june-berries, choke-cherries, wild plums, the feve- 
role, and especially the pomme blanche or Indian turnip. The 
latter were something like artichokes, white, ovate, one to three 
inches long, and about the size of a man's finger. They were 
collected in large quantities and formed a very common food. 

Hunting and Fishing : — The Mandans derived a living 
from agriculture and the hunt in about equal proportions. Their 
methods of hunting differed little from those of their neighbors. 
Game was in abundance and many animals besides the buffalo 
contributed to their sustenance. Among these were antelope, 
elk, deer, bighorn, and an occasional bear, besides beaver, 
rabbits, ducks and geese. Other animals were killed for their 
hides alone, as wolves, foxes, ermine and panther. Eagles and 
other birds of prey were hunted for their plumes. 

Buffalo were hunted all the year round whenever they were 
in the neighborhood of the village, for the Mandans did not go 
away on long hunting trips as did most of their neighbors. The 
buffalo hunt was directed by the Soldier Band. A small de- 
tached body of buffalo would be surrounded by the horsemen 
and then every animal killed in order to prevent the alarm- 
ing of the whole herd. Any animal which did not contain an 
arrow by which the slayer could be identified, belonged to who- 
ever found it. The beasts were cut up, and each man's 
horse was laden down with meat. Certain choice parts were 
eaten immediately by the hunter, and the heart and tongue 
could be demanded from anyone of a lower grade than he who 
asked for them. The childless old men and women usually 



THE MANDANS. 121 

met the returning hunters at a short distance from the vihage, 
and the hunters dropped portions of the meat for them. 

When the Missouri broke up in the spring large numbers of 
buffalo were drowned and floated down the ri^e^. The Man- 
dans usually caught large quantities of these as they floated by, 
and esteemed them as better than the fresh meat. Henry says 
that meat was nearly always hung up till partially decayed, 
after which it was better liked. The intestines of the buffalo 
were considered a good food and were always eaten. The Man- 
dans made pemmican, as did all of the plains tribes, grinding up 
the dried meat and packing it in parfleches, after which buffalo 
fat was poured in. 

Probably the antelope were next in importance to the 
buffalo. These were caught in large bands by means of what 
were called parks. At the head of a coulee an enclosure of 
branches was made with a narrow opening from which two fences 
of branches led away in the shape of a funnel, extending for 
a mile or often more. The Indians, on horseback, by surround- 
ing a band of antelopes could gradually work them towards 
this enclosure, through the gate of which they were at last 
forced to go. The entrance was then guarded and the hunters 
knocked the animals on the head with the stone war clubs; a 
hundred or more at a time were often killed in this fashion. 

Wolves and foxes were trapped in pitfalls which were dug 
to a depth of eight or ten feet, covered with branches and baited 
with pieces of buffalo meat. Beaver and other small fur-bear- 
ing animals were caught in traps. Bears were killed only occa- 
sionally as the Indians did not like to attack them. Cat-fish and 
sturgeon, as well as smaller fish and turtles were caught along 
the river, where unios and snails were also gathered. 

The larger birds were caught in a rather peculiar fashion. 
The hunters usually went to the Bad Lands to hunt them. 
There a pit was dug in some likely place, l^ait of small pieces 
of meat was scattered about, after which the hunter concealed 
himself in the pit, dragging over the top a covering of branches 
with bait upon them. Then he waited patiently, often for a 
day or more till a bird should alight on the branches; as soon 
as this happened the bird was grasped and pulled down into 



122 THE MANDANS. 

the pit where it was dispatched and the hunter waited for an- 
other. This method was also used by the Hidatsa, and so in 
fact nearly all the Mandan hunting methods and customs were 
duplicated among their neighbors. The only important excep- 
tion was the Mandan custom of giving a share of the meat to 
anyone who might come to the home of a successful hunter and 
ask for it. Henry tells us that the Hidatsa and Amahami did 
not have this charitable custom. 

War :— Among most of the Indians, war was the chief occu- 
pation of the men, and the Mandans in this respect differed 
little from the other tribes. They were constantly in danger 
from their more numerous enemies, the Dakotas, and in addition 
frequently had disputes with other smaller bands. The Man- 
dans were not a warlike people, and fought only when neces- 
sary; but when the time came they were among the bravest 
and most fearless warriors of the region. Maximilian says that 
they had been known to send war parties as far as the Rocky 
Mountains against the Blackfeet and as far east as the Red 
River against the Ojibwa. Their chief enemies were, however, 
the Dakota, the Cheyenne, and at times the Ankara. The cus- 
tom of sending out war parties was not as usual here as among 
their neighbors, the Hidatsa. The system of rank in the village 
was to a considerable extent based upon military prowess; 
the wearing of different insignia which indicated each man's 
deeds was a common device. Those who had made a coup 
wore a wolf's tail at the heel of their moccasin. If a man was 
the first of a party to touch and kill an enemy, he painted a 
spiral line about his arm, with another winding in the opposite 
direction with three cross stripes. For the second enemy he 
painted his left legging a reddish brown. If he killed an enemy 
in equal fight before any other enemy was slain, he could put a 
wolf's tail around each foot. For the third coup two lengthwise 
stripes with three cross stripes were painted on the arm, this 
was the most honorable coup and no other distincti\'e marks 
were in use, except that another eagle feather might be worn 
in the hair for each additional coup. If a man made his coup 
after others were made, the end of the wolf's tail was cut off. 
Six little wooden sticks worn in the hair showed that a man 



THE MANDANS. 123 

had been shot six times; some wore a wooden knife, a sign tliey 
liad killed an enemy witli a knife. Maximilian describes one 
man, a chief, whose face was painted half yellow and half 
red, with stripes made l)y rubbin*? the color off; his arms had 
seventeen lines showin<i the number of his deeds, and on his 
breast, in yellow, was a hand showing that he had made 
prisoners. 

When a youth first wished to lead a war party he at once 
acquired a medicine. Then he solicited his young men friends 
by ])resents and assurances of the efficacy of his medicine and 
after feasts and dances he departed with as many followers as 
he could get. In the large war parties there were four real 
leaders and sometimes three others called bad leaders. Each 
real leader carried a medicine pipe in a case on his back. To 
become a chief it was necessary to begin as a war party leader, 
then to kill a man while in a party where thecanditlate was not 
a leader. Again, while following another leader, he must be the 
first to discover the enemy and kill one of them, and lastly he 
must have owned at some time a white l)uffalo hitle. Each 
warrior carried about his neck the whistle of his band, and at 
the moment of falling upon the enemy these were blown and 
the war-cry was sounded. 

The Mandans seldom took male prisoners but c\en when 
taken they were never tortured. As soon as a prisoner had 
entered the village and eaten corn he was considered as one of 
the nation; the women, however, could go out and meet the 
returning party and kill the prisoners then. Scalps were dried 
and used in decoration. When a successful war party 
returned they were met by the women and ciiildren who entered 
the village with them dancing the scalp dance. The warriors 
painted the face, and often the whole body, black, and the 
scalp dance was flanced in the medicine lodge four nights, 
then later in the middle of the village. If no ALandan was 
killed in the campaign, the dance was kci)t up for six 
months. 

In all these war customs we find nothing more than the 
general plains ideas such as were found in all the Sioux triljes 
and among most of their neighbors. 



124 THE MANDANS. 

Disease and the Cure of Disease : — The Mandans were 
as a rule a very healthy people and their catalogue of diseases 
was small, being mostly those which of necessity accompany a 
life of considerable hardship. Catarrhal troubles, snow blindness, 
rheumatism and hemojjtisis were most common. They had 
no fevers and no consumption; venereal diseases were found, 
but the Mandans always claimed that these were got from the 
Crows. Their other troubles were wounds, snake bites and 
freezing. Maximilian said that he also found cases of the gout 
among them. 

Colds and catarrhal troubles and rheumatism were treated 
in the vapor bath which is found in one form or another among 
most Indian tribes. The patient was steamed well and then 
immediately plunged into icy water or snow, from there he 
went into the house where he was kept wrapped up for some 
time. The snow blindness was treated by gentle sweating- 
Cataracts and inflammation of the eyes resulted from snow 
blindness at times, and the inflammation was treated by rub- 
bing with some herb which had a rough surface. With this the 
eyeball was rubbed till blood flowed. Bleeding was practiced, 
and rattle-snake rattles were considered to be a remedy for 
almost anything. The rattles were powdered fine, mixed with 
water or saliva and either swallowed or rul)bed on the parts 
affected. The Mandans used no emetics but had a number of 
vegetable purgatives. Lewis and Clarke described a root which 
was chewed and placed on a snake bite, they called it Sacka- 
comah but it has not been identified botanically. Freezing was 
treated by rubbing with snow. Horses were sometimes given 
a piece of wasp's nest as a diuretic. 

Wounds healed with remarkable rapidity and had very 
little care. Severe cuts were rubbed with fat and sometimes 
bound up. A numlier of cases were known where persons who 
had been scalped recovered. In arrow wounds the point 
was always forced entirely through the flesh if possible because 
it came out more easily so. 

Games : — The Mandans had games for men, women and 
children, and in most of these betting was an important part of 
the sport. Probably the best known of these games was 



THE MANDANS. 125 

Skohpe, Tchung-kee or Billiards as some have called it. Henry* 
gives a good account of the method of i)lay: 

"Two persons are each pro^■ided with a stick six feet long 
on whicii are cut a certain number of notches an inch long; in 
the intervals of which are fixed the same number of small 
bunches of feathers of tliverse colors, with three pieces of wood 
sixteen inches square one near each end and one in the 
middle; these are perforated in the center and through them is 

passed the rod .... Each notch has a particular mark 

The ground is a smooth le^el place forty paces long by five 
broad. The players stand side l)y side and start from one end 
.... and trot .... halfway through, when one of them throws 
a ball .... and both players push their rods forward to over- 
take, and keep pace with the ball. Tliey tlien examine the 
bunch at which the ball stops." 

Catlin^ also describes it, saying that Tchung-kee was played 
on a smooth clay pavement. Two champions chose sides. 
One rolled a stone ring, the other slid a stick alongside, this 
stick had leather projections on which the ring should catch. 
The points were game, one, two, and four, depending on which 
projection the ring caught upon. The last winner alwaj's rolled 
the ring. If either failed he forfeited the amount of the number 
nearest to which his stick stopped and lost his throw, another 
taking his place. 

There seems to have been two forms of the game. The 
Hidatsa and Arikara played it, the latter considering it to some 
extent as a religious ceremony. Maximilian' tells us that the 
Pawnees also played it, but differently. Similar games were 
found throughout the southeast. 

In addition to Skohpe the men had horse races, foot races, 
and, according to Maximilian, sham battles. Catlin speaks of 
the games of moccasin and platter. Verendrye says the men 
played a game of ball on the ramparts, but this was probably 
Skohpe. The horse race was run in a circle about the ^'illage. 
Maximilian tells us that as many as twenty men ran in the foot 
races, and the races are mentioned by other writers. The men 
raced usually over a course about seven miles long. They had 

> Op. cit., vol. I, II. 303. - Op. fit., vol. I, p. 132. ' Op. cit , p. 417. 



^^^ THE MANDANS. 

regular archery contests in which each competitor paid an en- 
trance fee; the object was to see which man could get the most 
arrows mto the air at once.' 

The women played a game with a large leather ball orna- 
mented and well made, which they caused to fall alternately 
on the foot and knee by bouncing. There was also a children 's 
game, called Asse, played with the tip of an antler to the base 
of which two feathers were attached. The children also played a 
game with a hoop covered with a number of leather bands and 
about a foot in diameter. This hoop was rolled along and they 
hit It and knocked it down by throwing a pointed stick; the one 
that struck nearest the center won. In the spring after the 
break-up, the children used to run along the bank and throw 
this ring into the water.'^ Catlin also gives an account of sham 
battles under the leadership of older men in which the boys 
engaged. 

Miscellaneous: — As to the other features of their culture 
perhaps a few words from Maximilian^ will give some idea 
He says:—' ' Many of them take a real pleasure in music and 
painting and are very skillful in both. . . . Their musical instru- 
ments are simple. The songs consist of cries uttered from time 
to time, and broken by louder bursts of joy. These are accom- 
panied by heavy drum blows and the sound of rattles. . . They 
discussed with pleasure subjects of the highest order, the uni- 
verse and Its cause together with kindred topics, saying that 
their own explanation was far from satisfactory. . . . They are 
very fine orators, and use very impressive figurative language 

They like to talk By nature they are proud and full of 

ambition They often are highly sensitive, and some have 

been known to die of love or from wounded personal pride 
due to an insult to their honor. ' ' 

Maximilian also says that they were good story tellers and 
took great pleasure in relating their myths and legends They 
had a sort of literature in the shape of rituals for their elaborate 
dances, and these were handed down through the medicine men 
They paid considerable attention to the stars in their ceremonies 
but were not students of the heavens, and their calendar was a 

^ Op. clt., vol. I. 1,. 141. . Ma.xi,mlian : p. 417. 3 jbid., pp. 404 et «eq. 



THE MAN DANS. 127 

purely lunar one. Some recoril was kept of the years, a cer- 
tain symbol of some distinctive event standiiii;- for each year 
on the record robe, the same system used by the Dakotas. The 
year was divided as follows: 

January Moon of seven cokl days. 

February " " the rut of wolves. 

March " " sore eyes. 

April " " game; or of the river break-up. 

May " " sowing; or of flowers. 

June " " ripe june-berries. 

July " " ripe choke-cherries. 

August " " ripe wild plums. 

September " " ripe corn. 

October " " the fall of leaves. 

November " " the freezing rivers. 

December " " the little cold. 

The Mandans were a A'ery liberal and hospitable people, more 
so than any of their neighbors according to Henry. Food was 
practically common property in the village. No man could 
become a chief without much giving of presents, and giving was 
considered a great honor, the gifts which a man had made being 
painted on his robe along wdth his deeds in war. If one ex- 
pressed a desire for anything it was immediately given to him 
but a present of equal value was expected in return. In con- 
nection with this might be mentioned the custom of taking 
back a sale; by a return of the purchase price a man might 
regain anything which he had sold, whenever he wished to. 

The hospitality of the Mandans is mentioned by every visitor. 
Verendrye speaks particularly of his kind reception and says, 
' ' Their custom being to feed liberally all who came among 
them, selling only what was to be taken aw^ay. " ^ Even their 
worst enemy when once in their village had nothing to fear and 
was treated with all kindness. Henry remarked that the 
Mandans were thieves but never touched any propertj' of a 
stranger who was a guest in a lodge. They were bound to pro- 
tect any stranger, even an enemy who might seek refuge in the 
village. 

1 Op. cit., p. 15. 



128 THE MANDANS. 

Among a number of other customs, was treaty making with 
other tribes. This was well described by Henry who accom- 
panied the Mandans and Hidatsa when they went to make a 
treaty with the Cheyennes. Most of the people went on 
these treaty visits ; the band marched in a procession of fixed 
order and a number of ceremonial olijects were carried exposed 
throughout the march. The party was met with great cere- 
mony by the new allies and its members were taken into their 
houses. Several days of ceremonial feasting occurred and 
finally the head chief of each party adopted a son from the other 
tribe. After this there was more feasting and several days of 
trade between the two bands, when both returned home. 

The adoption of sons occurred also among the different 
families. Maximilian describes the adoption of a " medicine 
son" to whom a sacred pipe was given. The man chose his 
adopted son through a dream. The new pipe was consecrated 
and gifts were showered upon the son's family by the adopted 
father and his relatives. A dance and feast was then held. 
This custom was prevalent over all the Missouri region. 

There were a number of men who dressed and acted like 
women and were treated in every way as such. These men 
claimed to follow this life bv an order from the spirits given 
to them in a dream. 

Catlin says that the Mandans did not have slaves and there 
is no mention of them elsewhere. The Arikara, however, had 
a regular slavery system, and the Crows made slaves and sold 
them on the Missouri. The Mandans were very good at the 
sign language so Maximilian tells us. They were expert swim- 
mers, and collected their whole supply of wood by swimming 
out and towing in the drift wood at the time of the spring break- 
ups. 

In point of general culture the Mandans were superior 
to any of their immediate neighbors, surpassing even the other 
sedentary people, the Hidatsa and Arikara. Catlin says that 
they had advanced far in the arts of manufacture and had 
more comforts and luxuries than other tribes. When Verendrye 
saw them he, too, was struck by their superior skill. He said 
that the Mandans dressed leather and worked in feathers better 



THE MANDANS. 129 

than any other nation; also that tlieysohl <j;rain, toljacoo, j)chry, 
and painted plumes to the Assiniboine for arms, kettles, and 
other things of European manufacture. As is seen from this 
account of \'erendrye, Euroi)ean culture touchetl them very 
early by means of trade with nations farther east, and they 
were quick to take up the better articles so ac(iuired. For 
this reason it is diHicult to get any description of the use of 
earlier crude bone and stone implements, most of which had 
almost gone out of use when Lewis and Clarke visited the 
villages. 

Social Organization: — As regards the social organi/ation. 
the Mandans were di\ided into two sorts of bands. By the 
first method, like the Pawnee, they were known accord- 
ing to the old A illage from which they had originally come. 
Maximilian names at one tinu; eight villages in describing the 
old habitations; in another place he says they had thirteen 
and gives the names for si.x more, this gives fourteen distinct 
village names. He says that the people were kno\N'n by the 
names of the \ illages whence they originally came, and Morgan 
mentions eight of the iuim(^s given, as the gens names. This is 
the only trace of a gens organization found. The second met hod 
f)f grouping into bands followed the lines of the general plains 
division according to age. The First Chief who led tliem from 
underground was the originator of these di\isions. This chief 
gave to each band its own songs and whistles and directions as 
to conducting its dances. Each of these l)ands was distin- 
guished by a number of songs, by a certain sort of war wdiistle, 
by its head-dress and a number of other details of attire and 
ceremony. For the men there were six recognized bands. As 
men grew older they went from one band to the next. Ivich 
band or society had a limited membership, and a place in the 
band abo\"e was only obtained l)y purchase from a member 
who was ready to resign his place, and try to purchase a place 
in a band still higher up. New members must be received by 
all the old members of the band or the sale could not be made. 
Each society had a chief who was in charge of all important 
affairs. After a sale the new member gaAe a feast to the whole 
band, aiul following this the purchase property was returned to 



130 THE MANDANS. 

the buyers. The first band was that of ' ' The Dogs Whose 
Names Are Not Known. ' ' To this band boys from ten to 
fifteen years of age could belong. Maximilian was told that at 
first older men might belong to this band but that this was 
afterwards changed. Admission to this society and the learn- 
ing of the dance was bought from a member by the boy 's 
father. Maximilian says that the dances of all the bands were 
about the same, the differences being in the songs. Each band 
had a particular drum and rattle. 

The second band was the ' ' Band of the Crows ' ' composed of 
men from twenty to twenty-six years of age.^ There was 
usually an interA'al between tlie first and the second band when 
the man belonged to no group. Crow plumes were the distin- 
guishing feature of this division. 

The third society was the "Soldier Band" and was com- 
posed of the most distinguished warriors of the tribe. The 
members of tliis band could ne^'er retreat before an enemy. 
Another feature was its possession of two sacred pipes. All 
members of the higher Jjands belonged at the same time to 
this one. This group had charge of policing and regulating the 
village, a well-known feature of the Soldier Band among the 
Sioux and other plains tribes. They formed a committee 
which regulated all the important affairs of the nation, fixed 
the time for hunts and applied all the laws." 

The fourth division was the ' ' Dog Band. ' ' Three members 
from this wore a red cloth down the back such as all the first 
band wore. These three were known as the Dogs, and anyone 
could throw a piece of meat on the floor or in the fire, saying 
"There, Dog, eat," and any of these three must obey. 

The fifth band was that of the "Buffalos" or "Wolves." 
These in dancing wore the skin of a buffalo head with the horns. 
The two bravest, chosen by all, who never under any conditions 
could flee from an enemy, wore the whole head and horns and 
looked through artificial eyes. This was the only band which 
had a wooden drum. In this society there was also one woman 
who offered the two head dancers a basin of water as they 
danced. 

1 Op. c.it., \>. 409. 2 Il)id., p. 411. 



THE MAN DANS. 131 

The sixth ^roup was that of the " Bhick-tail Deer" and 
consisted of men oxer fifty years of af:;e. There were two women 
in this band who served food and distributed fresh water durin.u; 
the fiances. Tlie men wore a crown of bears' chiws. 

There were a fewotlicr chmces which were bought and sold, 
but which hanlly deserve a place in the regular system. One 
of these was the dance of the " Half Shaven Head Hand" which 
the lowest band could buy before reaching the proper age to buy 
into the " Soldier liand." Another was the "Old Dog Dance. ' ' 
The " Dog Band" could buy this of the " Buffalo Band" before 
becoming BufTalos themselves or being able to. The "Hot 
Dance" was danced at Rouhptare by the youngest band, and 
also at the Hidatsa village where it was purchased from the 
Arikara. The dancers danced barefoot over live coals and 
plunged their hands into boiling water. 

The women, too, were divided into bands. There were four 
of these of which the first was "The Band of the (iun" which 
consisted of the younger girls. Next was the ' ' Ri\er Band. ' ' 
The third band was the "Hay Women" who sang only the 
scalp dance. The fourth and last band was that of the ' ' Women 
of the White C(nv," most of them were old, and they were all 
tattooed with black lines from the mouth to the base of the 
chin. 

The marriage customs of the Mandan Indians differed little 
from those of their neigh])ors. Polygamy was common, al- 
though a large i)art of tlie men had but one wife. Descent was 
proljably along the male line, though there may have been 
remains of an older custom of descent along the female line, for 
all the horses captured by a young man belonged to his sister. 
The women worked hard and were sometimes badly treaterl 
though not as a general rule. Lewis and Clarke says that infi- 
delity was punishable by death. Maximilian says it was pun- 
ishable by cutting off the woman's nose. When a man's wife 
was stolen he had a right to demand a horse from the abductor. 
Separations occurred among them quite frequently. Virtue 
among the women was held in high esteem l)Ut was rather 
scarce. There are accounts of a celebration where prizes were 
given to the virtuous maids — these celebrations also took ])lace 



132 THE MANDANS. 

among the Arikara and Hidatsa. The men boasted their h^ve 
exploits, and carried often al^out the ^■illage small bundles of 
sticks each representing a conquest, or one large stick with 
stripes indicating the numl)er; this was also a Hidatsa custom. 

When a man \\ ished to marry, after obtaining the girl 's and 
the father's consent, he led horses to the door of the father's 
house and tied them there. Then the father took the same num- 
ber of his own horses and tied them to the young man's door. 
After this the i;irl cooked corn each day and carried it to the 
young man's house for a certain number of days. Then the 
young man went to the father's house and claimed his wife. 
The young peo])le either built a new home or lived with one of 
their parents, in which case the father remained master of the 
house. On marrying an eldest sister, a man accjuired the right 
of marriage o^er all the other sisters. Catlin tells us that the 
girls usually married at from twelve to fourteen years of age. 

Children were never disciplined and were always humored 
by their parents who seemed to be very fond of them. The 
father's brother and sister were called father and mother. The 
mother's sister was called mother and her brother uncle. 
Cousins called each other brother and sister. The mother-in- 
law was not permitted to address her son-in-law till he had 
come back with the scalp and gun of an enemy. Someone was 
usually paid to give the child his name, which was chosen by 
the parent. 

Religion: — The religious ideas of the Mandans resemble in 
a number of respects both those of the Sioux and the Arikara. 
While there are a number of deities, there was one among them 
to whom special veneration was paid. This one, the creator 
of the earth and everything in it, and of men, was called the 
Lord of Life.^ Next after him came the First Man to whom 
the Lord of Life gave great power and who acted as a sort of 
mediator for men. Catlin says he was the only person saved 
from the great deluge, and he playetl an important part in the 
Okeepa. He was worshipped and sacrifices were made to him. 
Next was an e\\\ spirit who, though powerful, ranks far below 
the First Man. Fourth on the list was Rokanka-Tauihanka 

1 Maximilian : p. 4l;». 



THE MANDANS. 133 

who lives on the phiiiet Venus and protects men. Fifth was one 
called the Lying Prairie Wolf, a sort of wandering; Jew and evil 
spirit, but without power. Lastly was Ochkih-Hedde; he came 
once to the village and taught them many things, then disap- 
peared. When anyone saw him in a dream it was a signof death. 
Sacrifices were offered to hin; and images of him were exposed 
in the village. 

The sun was worshipped as the place where the Lord of Life 
lived. In the moon lived the Old Woman Who Never Dies, 
who had a white line around her head. She corresponded to 
the Corn Mother of the Arikara and was supposed to be very 
powerful. Many sacrifices were offered to her. She had six 
children, three sons and three daughters. The first son was 
day (the first of creation), the second was the sun, the third was 
night. The eldest daughter was the morning star (the woman 
who carries a bunch of feathers), the second was the striped 
pumpkin (a star revolving about the polar star), the third was 
the evening star. Resides these there was a group of super- 
natural beings of less prominence, among whom were the first 
chief, certain animal people, the thunder-bird and similar beings. 

They seemed to have two distinct theories as to the here- 
after, according to Maximilian part of the people adhcrotl to 
each view. Both beliefs agreed that each man liad four souls, 
one black, one brown, one clear, and the other not described. 
The first sect believed that the clear soul returned to the liord of 
Life ; another one went to the villages to the south which are 
often visited by the gods, and one of the souls of the bra\e and 
great men went to the villages of the gods. There was a separ- 
ate village for the wicked. Life in all these villages was a con- 
tinuance of that on earth, they had food, women, went hunting 
and on war parties, and had an abundance of everything. To 
this might be added Catlin's story,* somewhat less crcdihle, 
that they believed in a warm heaven and a cold hell; tliat all 
went to hell for a while where the (lood Spirit punished them, 
after which they went to heaven where they were again tempted 
by the Evil Spirit. The other sect de.scrihetl by Maximilian 
believed that after death they went to live in the sun or stars. - 

» Op. Clt., vol. -J, p. 157. '^ < »P <-lt., p. 4SU. 



134 THE MANDANS 

In this description of an after life, there was a marked mixture 
of ideas. The idea of multiple souls is Siouan, the rest is more 
or less common over most of the region. 

As usual in the plains area every natural phenomenon and 
unaccountable event was mystery or medicine, and the medicine 
idea played the usual important part in all their religious cus- 
toms. Thunder was ascribed to the familiar thunder-bird, the 
glitter of whose eyes dug a path through the clouds for tlie rain 
and caused the lightning.' Solitary claps of thunder were as- 
cril:)ed to a huge turtle which lived in the clouds. The rain- 
1)()W was said to be a spirit which accompanies the sun and 
which shows itself when the sun retires for the night-. The 
aurora bf)realis was said to be the fire kindled at an assembly of 
the great medicine men and warriors of the northern nations, 
over which they cooked their dead enemies in huge pots.^ 
They had several beliefs about the stars — that of the Sioux, 
that each star is a man, and when a child is born the star comes 
down and when he dies it returns; also that a multitude of super- 
natural beings existed in the stars to which sacrifices anfl prayers 
were offered. Dreams were of very great importance and 
governed nearly all their acts. 

There were many small personal superstitions or mysteries. 
One man told Maximilian that he could turn a snowball into a 
white stone, another claimed that his nose always bled if he picked 
up his pipe by the bowl. There were many signs of good and bad 
luck. A pregnant woman was considered to bring luck at the 
game of Skohpe. The medicine men told them that if a clay 
image of an enemy were made with a needle or quill in it for a 
heart, and were placed at the foot of some medicine structure, 
that enemy would die. A pregnant woman brings bad luck to 
her husband in hunting. Many of the Mandans believed that 
they had some animal, as a buffalo, turtle or frog in them; the 
women had a dance when they thought an ear of corn was in 
them, which the dance caused to come out. ^ There were a num- 
ber of other superstitions of this sort, mostly common to all 
the plains tribes. One more notable might be mentioned, how- 
ever, that of building the fire with two sticks crossed in the center, 

1 Ibid., 1). 42-2. 2 Ibid., p. 423. ^ Ibid., p. 463. 



THK MAN DANS. 135 

wliifh were pushed in as tli(\y burnt. This was done heeause the 
First Man told them they must never have a l>i,i;- fire after the 
day's cooking was done and showed them how it shouhl be 
built. It recalls the sacred fire of the Muskogi and other tribes 
of the lower Mississippi. They declared that many of the e\ery 
day customs were taught them thus and consequently they 
always did them a certain way, — thus Ochkih-Hedde taught 
them to tattoo themselves, and their first chief taught them to 
kill buffalo and to make shields. 

The Mandans practiced jxMianccs and sacrifices, especially 
self-torture which they carried to great extremes. Their medi- 
cine or personal guardian s|)irit was ac(]uired by three or four 
days fasting and self injury, after which t he medicine, often an 
animal, appeared to the candidate in a dream. This ceremony 
was also taught to them by Ochkih-Hedde. No ex])edition or 
enterprise was undertaken without a liberal sacrifice to some 
sui)ernatural being, either by offering valuable goods or by 
physical self-torture. Finger joints were frequently cut off as 
an offering to the gods and fasting was common as a ))ro])itia- 
tion. Often a day or more would be spent near one of the medi- 
cine scaffolds in groaning, praying and weeping. Lewis and 
Clarke relate that finger joints were also cut off as a sign of 
mourning, which Maximilian denies, and Catlin tells how such 
a sacrifice was a part of the catalogue of tortures in the great 
Okeepa dance. The custom of consecrating personal property 
is found here as among the neighl)oring tribes. A man could 
make his gun, his horse, his pipe and other similar articles 
medicine by going through certain ceremonies, most important 
of which was the giving of a feast. The feast' was announced 
by a public crier, a certain number of guests were in\ ited, the 
invitations being originally little rods and later playing cards. 
The drum and rattle made the round of the company. Then 
the article was consecrated; if a gun, it was rubbed with meal 
several times, with soup, and lastly with fat, after which the feast 
took place. 

There were many shrines antl sacred articles among t he .Man- 
dans, but judging from the accounts, the .sacred bundles or 

1 Maximilinn : i). 4fi:{. 



136 THE MANDANS. 

medicine bags as Maximilian calls them, seem to have been 
much less important than among the Arikara. Nevertheless 
these bundles were by no means absent. Maximilian relates 
that each man had his own medicine bag, the contents of which 
no one else might see. In addition to this there was a large 
medicine bag in the medicine lodge within \vhich, Maximilian 
tells us, were preserved three sacred skulls, those of the chief 
who had led them out from underground, of his sister, and of 
his brother — also this chief's rattle. In the medicine lodge 
were also the sacred rattle and the four drums of hide, filled with 
water, which were made to resemble turtles and which they 
claimed, according to Catlin, they had always had. They had 
a sacred pipe or calumet also, which Maximilian was not allowed 
to see, the price of looking at it alone being placed at one hun- 
dred dollars. He says^ that it was very hard for the Manrlans 
to get these sacred pipes and much more trouble to consecrate 
them. Certain things must be hung upon them and among 
these was the skull of an animal which at that time was 
not found in the A'icinity, and for which an enormous price had 
to be given. There were many other pipes called medicine 
pipes belonging to private owners, these however were merely 
ordinary pipes which had been consecrated by the ceremony 
already described. Each Mandan regarded his own medicine 
as a sacred animal, and in addition there were several animals 
which were regarded as sacred throughout the whole tribe. 
Owls and screech owls were kept in the lodges to predict the 
future. The war-eagle was considered as having great medi- 
cine power and they kept all sorts of Inrds of prey alive in the 
huts for their plumes. Geese were considered to l)e very sacred 
also, first because in one of their tales the Lord of Life turned 
into a goose and flew away with a flock of them, and also as 
they are the messengers of the Old Woman Who Never Dies or 
the Corn Mother. Of greatest importance among these sacred 
animals, however, was the white buffalo, whose hide was the 
most Valuable article that a Mandan could possess. The hides 
were bought mostly from other nations, they were tanned with 
horns and hoofs on, and were not valuable unless of heifers 

1 Op, cit., p. 43'J. 



THE MANDANS. 137 

under two years old. These hides were worth ten to fifteen 
horses or sixty ordinary robes. No man could be of great im- 
portance in the tribe unless he had at one time owned one 
of them. Immediately on its acquisition tlie hide was hung 
up on a pole before the owner's lodge and consecrated to the 
Lord of Life, the sun, or the First Man. The ceremony of con- 
secration was rather elaborate and was conducted by the sha- 
man. A great mass of ^■aluables, the collection of three or 
four years, was also offered or given away at the same time. 
The ro])e was either left suspended until it rotted away, or was 
taken down and cut into strips, one of which was worn by each 
member of the owner's family. 

The Mandans seem to have had something in the nature of 
shnnes and sacred images both natural and artificial. First 
among the artificial ones might be mentioned the Ark or Big 
Canoe which has already been described. This formed the 
central figure for most of the Mandan ceremonial dances. There 
was also the image of Ochkih-Hedde which hung before the 
medicine lodge; and there were similar images hanging before 
nearly every one of the other lodges, these were made of skin, 
branches and earth^ and were intended to represent the Lord 
of Life and the First Man. Other shrine-like structures were 
built on the prairie. One of these is described by Maximilian." 
" . . . Four poles are plac^ed in a square, the two front ones 
garnished at the base with a ))ilc of earth and sod. lict ween 
them are four buffalo skulls in a row, between the two back 
poles are twenty-six liuman skulls painted partly with red 
stripes, l)ehind the whole are two kiiixcs fixed in the ground. 
The poles are surmounted by bundles of branches; on these 
again is a crest of pieces of sharp wood, the ends painted red. 
. . . Sometimes on two of the i)oles are tied stuffed figures to 
represent the sun and moon, or the Lord of Life and the Old 
Woman Who Never Dies. Wild absinthe (wormwood) is at- 
tached by handfuls to the poles." These are probably the 
same things whicli Catlin nKMitioiis in connection with the 
burial customs. 

Chief among the natural shrines was the medicine rock of 

1 Miixiiiiilian : p. 444. - lliia, p. 460. 



138 THE MANDANS. 

which Lewis and Clarke, Henry, C'atlin, and Maximilian all give 
accounts. The Mandans told Lewis and Clarke that this rock, 
which was at three days march to the southwest, informed them 
of every thing to happen during the year and that they visited 
it every spring and sometimes in the summers.* The descrip- 
tion which Maximilian gives f)f this rock seems wf)rth repetition : 
"Jt is situated at two or three days from the village on the 
edge of the ('annonl)all River from which it is about one hun- 
dred ])aces. They say it is on the summit of a rather iiigh 
hill, the top of which is \o\e\. It is marked by the foot- 
prints of men and other animals, dogs and travels. It is a 
sort of oracle. They offer it all sorts of valuable articles — 
knives, pipes, cloth. . . . When going to war they pass 
near and consult the stone. They approach it, weep, groan, 
smoke, and retire to a distance where they pass the night. Next 
day they take down on parchment what the stone shows. This 
painted parchment is carried to the village where the old men 
interpret it. Undoubtedly new figures are seen on the stone 
from time to time. Not far from this place was the ark where 
part of the nation was saved." The Minnetarees also had one 
of these medicine stones which was consulted in practically 
the same way. One more of their natural sacred objects deserves 
mention; this was a lake some distance from their villages 
where a great serpent, formerly a Mandan warrior, was said to 
reside. This serpent was a good genius and offerings of all 
sorts were thrown into the lake to procure his aid. 

The shaman although mentioned occasionally is not de- 
scribed, nor are his powers well defined by any of the authori- 
ties. Maximilian remarked that there were shamans who 
gathered herbs and pretended to cure diseases and others who 
did tricks and conducted preparations for the ceremonies. 

Mythology : — Practically all material on Mandanmythology 
comes from Maximilian who wrote down a large number of 
stories directly as they were told to him by a Mandan chief, 
Dipeuch. Catlin and Lewis and Clarke reinforce these with a 
few details. It is found by analysis of the myths given by 
Maximilian that two distinct, parallel, mythological stories of 

1 Lewis and CKarke: Feb. 21, 1805. 



THE MAN DANS. 189 

the origin of the people existed, both were told hy the same 
man, each of these accounts being made up of a nundjer of 
separate myths. Perhaps a short synopsis of these two cycles 
will best show the condition of the mythology and the relation- 
ship with that of other nations. According to one of these, the 
Lord of Life created the First Man, who in turn created the earth. 
It was made of mud ])rought up from the bottom of the sea 
by a tluck. The I'irst Man walked about on it, meeting some 
animals and then finally the Lord of Life; a dispute arose 
between the two as to which should be called father, and they 
sat down, agreeing that the first one to ri.se should be the son. 
Many years they sat and when the Lord of Jiife was only a 
pile of whitened bones, the First Man arose. At once the Lord 
of J.ife jumi)ed up and was acknowledged as father. The two 
of them w'ent about together, the Lord of Life said the earth 
must be remade and called the buffalo, who was commanded 
to fetch grass and wood. Then the two gods each took half 
the land to shape — they were at the mouth of the Heart River 
and the Lord of Life took the south side of the Missouri, the First 
Man took the north. The Lord of Life made hills and coulees, but 
First Man made his section flat and wooded so people could 
not live there. Then each made himself a w'ooden pipe, the 
Lord of Life making his of ash wood inlaid with stone, the First 
Man making his of soft w^ood. They placed the two together 
and the Lord of Life said. " This will be the center, the heart 
of the world." They walked along and met a buffalo from 
whom they got tobacco. Then they made men, but limited 
their life to one hundred years lest the world be over-populated, 
and these men were taught by the Lord of Life to use buffalo. 
After this the Lord of Life and the First Man killed all the old 
wolves and taught the young ones not to eat men, the skins of 
the old ones floating dow^n the river, turned into white men. 
A httle later the First Man saw a girl ineffectually attempt- 
ing to bring ashore a dead buffalo cow, he supernaturally guided 
it to her and she ate some of the flesh and in consequence be- 
came pregnant. A boy was born to her who became the first 
chief. This chief made a canoe which understood him when 
he spoke to it. In it he sent some men down to a white nation 



140 THE MANDANS. 

to get shells and beads. The men were killed, so finally he went 
himself and came back safely. Then the First Man went down 
with another party and all were killed but he. He saved him- 
self by strategy. The white men became angry because they 
could not kill him and they made the waters rise so that the 
whole earth was submerged. Related to this is a statement by 
a Mandan to Catlin that the earth was a huge turtle, the 
white men stuck a knife through its shell and it sank so the 
water flooded its back. The First Man made them build a 
tower on a height on the lower bank of the Heart River and 
the whole nation was saved there. Soon after the flood, the First 
Man went away to the west and said he would come back when 
they needed him. One day they wanted him and could not 
discover how to reach him, till at last a man said that thought 
would do it. He sat down and thought and cried, "I think, I 
have thought, I return," and rose bathed in sweat, and the First 
Man came, and helped them. .Just after this the Lord of Life 
turned into a goose and being hurt fell into a Mandan village 
where he escaped plucking by cursing the women. Thence he flew 
to the Hidatsa village, where he clawed and beat a woman who 
said she would have no one but the Lord of life for her husband. 
The next day, however, he returned to the sun and caused her 
to ascend to him by means of a rope which he let down, the story 
continuing the Siouan myth of the boy and the mother coming 
down a sinew cord to the earth again. 

The second cycle of stories does not begin with a creation 
myth, but merely with a brief account of the earliest existence. 
The Mandans said that there were four stories under the earth 
and four stories al)Ove; before the flood they lived in a village 
under the earth near a lake, and a grape-vine grew down through, 
letting the light into the underworld. They wanted to come 
up and sent the mouse, badger, a strange, mythical animal and 
a deer to dig out a hole. Then they climbed out by the grape- 
vine till half were on earth and a very corpulent woman broke 
the vine. A flood came when they were first coming out and 
the first tril)e (Tattooed Faces) perished almost wholly. All this 
happened near a lake to the east. If they are good the 
Mandans go back to this old village under ground when they die. 



THE MANDANS. 141 

They now found theniselvt's on the surface of the earth. The peo- 
ple were led by a chief and they kept walkini;- till they reached 
the Missouri at the mouth of the White River. They ascended 
il to the Moreau, here they found enemies in the Cheyenne, 
and they went to war and killetl and scalped for the first time. 
The great chief who led them out of tlie earth together with 
his sister and brother taught them to make shields, and then he 
divided them into bands and led them against the Cheyenne. 
After a long struggle he performed a miracle by whicii the enemy 
were nearly all slain. Then the Mandans moved up to the Heart 
River. Here one day, four Hidatsa came to them for a time 
and on leaving promised to return in four days. Four years later 
they returned with a luunerous band. The Hidatsa crossed 
the river and built villages, and the Mandans taught them to 
raise corn. Then after a few years they moved up to the Knife 
River where they settled. This was during the period at 
which the Mandans lived in a village on the Heart River. 

liesides these two myth cycles there are also a numl)er of 
tales as yet unconnected with either group. First among 
these should be considered the tales about the Old Woman 
Who Never Dies. The Old Woman Who Never Dies owns a 
very large plantation in the south where her two deer and 
many blackbirds guard her crops, and the mouse and mole 
help work the soil. The water birds she sends north as her 
representatives in the spring, and at the same time goes north 
to visit the Old Man Who Never Dies, but she stays with him 
only a short time. 8he is the goddess of corn, and the cere- 
monies in her honor are to bring good crops. Formerly she 
lived on the Little Missouri where the Indians visited her. 8iie 
gave the Hidatsa once a little corn in a dish and it fed twelve 
men. Finally she went south to live. 

The story of the great serpent forms an inijwrtant 
tale for comi)arative purposes. The great serpent was sup- 
posed to have been one of two Mandan braves who crawled 
through a hole in the bluff and came out in a land of giants. 
On returning, the two killed a monstrous snake of which one 
of them ate. He himself soon turned into a great snake and 
became a sort of minor deity for the people. 



142 THE MANDANS. 

As has been said there are in the Mandan myths two distinct 
cycles of tales; there seems to be two sources for the detached 
stories as well. The first cycle seems to be along the lines of 
the Siouan and Algonquin stories. The creation myth is much 
like that of the Chippewa : the naming of the animals, the story 
of the Sun Boy, and the tale of reaching the First Man by thought, 
seem to be Siouan in their origin for we find them most im- 
portant in that stock. The creation myth exists likewise 
among the Crows, and it is told by the Ankara, — the latter, 
however, have a more popular creation tale. The Man- 
dan myth is not found among theSkidi Pawnee. The story of 
the making of the Heart River region is naturally found among 
the Arikara as are some tales about Lucky Man and the Wolf 
who seem to correspond to the T^ord of Life and the First 
Man. but none of these characters are found among the Skidi 
tales where Tirawa, the Creator, has no companion in his work. 
The tale of tlie struggle between the Lord of Life and the First 
Man as to which should be father is distinguishable in the Ari- 
kara, but not in the Skidi. The tale of the Sun Boy is, how- 
ever, found in the Pawnee, but is known also in practically 
every plains tribe. The story of the child born to the girl from 
eating cow fat, is in the Crow but not in the Arikara or Skidi. 
In general so far as comparable material is at hand these tales 
do not appear to be of Caddo origin, and are in most cases 
connected with the tales of some other Siouan tribe. 

As to the other cycle of tales there is little in the Siouan 
stories with which it may be compared. The story of an un- 
derground origin is developed characteristically in the soutli- 
west, — it appears in numerous forms among the Arikara and 
with even more detail among the Skidi. The first chief in the 
Mandan migration, the man who led them from underground, 
is very closely allied with the Corn Mother leader of the Ari- 
kara, and the preservation of his skull in a sacred Ijundle is 
again suggestive of the southern plains. 

The Corn Mother tale seems most clearly related to Caddoan. 
The tale of the Great Serpent as well as that of the Sun Boy is 
spread over the whole plains region, — the Crow, the Arikara, 
the Pawnee, and the Dakota all possess more or less close \er- 



THE MANDAXS. 143 

sions of this story. None of the Ciuhloaii Poor Uoy stories 
have been found in the Mandan, but this may l)e due to tlic 
limited extent of Maximilian's collection. It can only be said 
that the Mandan myths so far as known seem to be about an 
equal mixture of north and south plains types. 

Ceremonials: — The Mandan dance system seems to have 
been rather complicated, and in it are found again the two con- 
flicting influences. In one case the origin of the dances is said 
to have been due to Ochkih-Hedde, the evil spirit. Again the 
First Chief who led them out of the ground is said to ha\'e 
arranged all their dances, and the Okeepa, according to Catlin, 
was instituted b}' the First Man. There were two sorts of 
dances; first those in \\ liicli it appears that anyone could take 
part, and secondly those belonging to the different societies 
previously referred to. Of the first kind there were four prin- 
cipal ones, and of these the Huffalo (Jance and the Scalp dance, 
although not the uk st important, were most frequently tlanced 
and were practically identical with the same dances of other 
plains tribes; the Scalp dance was performed by those related 
to persons with newly acquired coups. The Buffalo dances 
were of two types. One was for the purpose of getting the good 
will of influential men and is described by Henry and Catlin. 
This dance had several obscene features. The other Buffalo 
dance was danced by the men in relays wearing a buffalo 
head and its purpose was to bring the buffalo in time of 
need. 

The other two dances (leser\e more particular mention. 
Catlin says of all these dances,' "l*]very dance has its peculiar 
step and song." The songs were understood only by the med- 
icine men and required much application and study. Candi- 
dates paid to learn them. I'his applies particularly to the 
Okeepa which is the best-known dance of the Mandans. No 
description is necessary as Catlin has given two very full ones 
and Maximilian has also given a good account of it. The 
Okee])a wan performed once a year as a rule and nearly ever}' 
inhabitant of th(> village had some part to play in it. It lasted 
four days, and in all the dances, dance groups and ceremonial 

' Op. clt., vol. 1, p. 120. 



144 THE MANDANS. 

objects, they kept a careful observance of the number four and its 
multiples. The Okeepa appears to have been f[uite different 
from the usual sun-dance ceremonies, although the sun-dance 
observance formed a part of it. Catlin says that no other na- 
tion had such a dance, although many had features of it in 
their own dances. In some respects it seems to show a rather 
remarkable similarity to some of the dances of the Pueblo re- 
gion and very possibly some of these features were transmitted 
from there through thesouthern plains tribes. The resemblance is 
in small details such as the decorating of the ark with willow 
branches which is much like the ])reparation of the kisi. Com- 
munication with old villages underground was suj^posed to be 
established by pounding on the ark, as it was among the 
southwestern dancers by stepping on the sipapu. From the 
description of the sacred object in the center of the Mandan 
altar, it seems to have been something like the Pueblo squash 
lilossoms. Lastly the story of the visit of the First Man to 
the whites and his institution of the Okeepa, after having 
escaped them, is much like the origin story of the Pueblo Snake 
and Antelope Dance. The most peculiar feature of the cere- 
mony was the connection which it had with the flood myth; 
the ark was supposed to be a copy of the tower in which 
the Mandans were saved from the flood. It formed the center 
in all the different parts of the ceremony. The Okeepa had 
features which have been ascribed by Maximilian to the influ- 
ence of early missionaries. 

The second of these dances was the Corn Dance and this 
was doubtless of Caddo origin. This dance was danced to the 
Old Woman Who Never Dies by the old women of the village 
for whom a number of old men furnished the music. Each 
old woman carried an ear of corn on the end of a stick and the 
ceremony was intended to consecrate this corn. After the 
consecration the corn was distributed, a few grains to each 
family, by whom it was mixed with the seed corn for spring 
planting. The ceremony took place when the representatives 
of The Old Woman Who Never Dies — the water birds — re- 
turned north, and a quantity of dried meat was hung up on 
the scaffolds as a sacrifice. After the dance this dried meat 



THE MAXDANS. 145 

became the property of the dancers. Another corn dance \vas 
held in tlie fall, but Maximilian tells us that the purpose of 
this one was to bring the buffalo. In this dance each woman 
carried a whole stalk of corn — the corn was called by the name 
of the water bird which represented it, and a prayer was made 
to the Old Woman Who Never Dies through these birds. The 
birds going south were supposed to carry these prayers to their 
mistress, and in this dance each old woman made a sacrifice 
of some valuable article. The elements of the corn dance agree 
in most particulars with those of the Pawnee and southern 
plains tribes. 

Burial: — In their burial customs the Mandans show close 
analogy with the Sioux. Their cemeteries were usually only 
two hundred to three hundred paces from the palisade and 
consisted of a number of scaffolds on which the dead were 
placed. These scaffolds were made on four posts about twelve 
feet high, the length of the rectangle being about six feet. 
Across the posts willow rods, just strong enough to support the 
body, were placed.^ When a person died he was left in the 
village but a very short time; the face was painted red, the 
body was oiled, dressed in the finest clothes and wrapped in a 
green buffalo skin or at a later period in a piece of cloth. The 
whole was then tightly wrapped with thongs of rawhide from 
head to foot. Then other robes were soaked in water and 
tightly wrapped and tied around the body. After this the 
corpse was immediately carried out and placed on the scaffold 
together with a bow and (juivcr, shield, pipe and tobacco, knife, 
flint and steel and provisions for several days. In case of a 
child, it was wrapped up in a small bundle which was tied 
to the scaffold by a cloth or hide. Catlin says the bodies were 
placed with their feet to the rising sun. Maximilian says the 
face was turned to the east. ^ Lewis and Clarke^ give an ac- 
count of a different sort of burial which must have been of rare 
occurrence for we find no mention of anything of the sort else- 
where. It is as follows: "An old man one hundred 

and twenty winters old, he requested his grand Children to 
Dress him after Death, & Set him on a Stone on a hill, with his 

' Catlin; vol. 1, p. >*^. ■ <»l>. cit., j). 47'.». ' Feb. 20, 1806. 



146 THE MANDANS. 

face towards his old Village Down the river, that he might go 
Streight to his brother at their old village under ground." 
When a warrior was killed in battle he was never buried. 
If the body could not be carried back to the village, it 
was left as it lay.' In such a case the family would roll 
up a buffalo skin and carry it out, placing it on the scaffold 
where it was treated just as if it held the body of the 
dead man. 

Catlin says that when the rods sup])orting the body broke 
and the body fell, the family interred all of the bcmes except 
the skull. Such skulls were placed eight or nine feet apart, in 
circles; one hundred or more in a circle; in the center of each 
circle was a small mf)und about three feet high. On this 
mound were two buffalo skulls, a male and a female, and in 
the center was a medicine pole twenty feet high supporting 
many medicine articles. Each skull was on a bunch of wild 
sage. 

The Mandan period of mourning was one year, during which 
they dressed poorly and kept the hair cut short. Immediately 
upon the death, the relatives cut their hair, rubbed their bodies 
with white and gray clay, and gashed their arms and legs with 
a knife or a stone so that they were covered with blood. In the 
first few days groans and weeping were continuous. According 
to Maximilian there was a very solemn ceremony concluding 
the burial, which he called covering the body. This act might 
be done either by a relative or an outsider. The person who 
intended to cover the body came with one or two cloth cover- 
ings, red, blue, white or green. He mounted the scaffold as 
soon as the body was placed upon it and covered the remains 
with his covering. He then received a present of a horse from 
the immediate relatives. When it was learned that someone 
intended to cover the dead, a horse was at once tied to the 
scaffold and as soon as the body had been covered the horse 
was untied and led away by the man who had performed that 
office.^ Gifts of value were hung all about the scaffold and 
these gifts were presented to those who had assisted in prepar- 
ing and placing the body upon it. 

' Maximili.in: p. 47-. "^ Ibid., p. 481. 



THE MANDANS. 147 

Tlie Mandan method of burial was vised likewise by their 
nei,i!;hbors the Ilidatsa and in a modified form by the Dakota 
and nearly all the Siouan tribes. The Arikara, however, used 
the opposite form, that of interment. With them the dead were 
buried in a Hexed position in graves (lined with stone) and the 
scaffold system was never used. 



SECTION II. 

ARCHAEOLOGY. 

As has been stated, the villages of the earliest known period 
centered about the mouth of Heart River, with Square Butte 
Creek for the northern and Apple Creek for the southern limit. 
Several sites in this area were examined, and one site, in almost 
all respects the best, was somewhat extensively explored. 

Of the village sites which were only incidentally studied, 
the most southern was that on the west bank of the Missouri 
near old Fort Abraham Lincoln. This village, roughly tri- 
angular in shape, occupied a bench boundetl on one side by an 
old wash bank of the river, on another side by a deep narrow 
coulee, and on the remaining side by a high, steep hill. The 
mounds are low and indefinite in outline and evidently much 
disturbed. On the river side there is an extensive talus com- 
posed largely of refuse. Here there has also been a considerable 
landslide. On the side nearest the hill there are traces of a 
ditch, this side being the only one not protected by nature. 

Another site, possessing natural defenses of the highest 
order, is located about three miles northwest of Bismarck, on 
the east bank of the river. Here, a promontory with a level, 
circular summit is almost entirely cut off from the high bench 
by deep precipitous ravines. The narrow neck, as shown in 
Map II, was protected by a ditch and wall. The ditch and 
wall show two ox-bow like protuberances which may be the 
remains of a well-flanked gate. A ditch is also seen at a point 
on the river side where the hill-slope is less steep than usual. 
On the northern side, is a sort of platform along the hillside, 
about ten feet below the crest. This may be the remains of a 
ditch and wall, so placed that the higher level of the village 
would l)e a vantage point in defense of the palisades. This will 
be referred to as the Wartl site. 
(148) 



THE MANDANS. 149 

A third village looation, the Larson site, is almost devoid 
of any natural defenses. It is situated on the oast hank of the 
river, about seventeen miles above Bismarck. This village 
was built upon the edge of a wide, level bench which ranges 
only about thirty feet above the flood plain of the Missouri. As 
may be seen by Map tit, the remains consist of a well-marked 
ditch which traverses the centival j)ortion of the site, a suidvcn 
area near one end of the ditch, and a seri(>s of mounds, the 
largest of which are on the margin of the site. Unfortunately, 
the j)low has disturbed the original contovu's of the mounds. 
Moreover, there is some evidence that the river may liave cut 
away the bank and destroyed part of the site. The position of 
the larger mounds on the outer edge is in accordance with the 
theory that they were fortifications. But tlio position of the 
ditch is something of a mystery. Instead of surrounding the 
site, it seems to cut across it and divide it into two nearly (vpial 
parts. Adjoining the ditch, and near the wash bank, is a large 
sunken area which may have been the town square. 

The Burgois site (Plates xxviii, xxix), which furnished the 
principal material for this paper, is aliout fourteen miles north- 
west of Bismarck, on the east bank of the river. It is 
conspicuously placed on the summit of a high bhiff which com- 
mands a fine view up and down stream. .Aliove tlu^ site, tlu^ 
Mi.ssouri swings in a wide curve known as Mountaineer liend, 
at the upper end of which is situated the Larson site previously 
described. Below, the river spreads into a maze of islands and 
sand bars. It .seems reasonable that this village may l)e iden- 
tified with the one described ))y Lewis and Clark as being at 
the head of a large island, the island having since disintegrated. 

On the south, about one hundred yards from the outer 
limits of the village remains, is a deep ravine; to the north and 
east there is a gentle slope towards the level prairie land. Below 
the bluff, stretch the bottom lands, partly meadow-land and 
partly timbered with cotton-wood, ash and diamond willow. 

The remains extend for thirteen hundred feet along the 
edge of the bluff and eight hundred feet back. They comprise, 
first, mounds from one to ten feet in height; second, continuous 
ditches; third, circular, slightly sunken house rings; fourth, 



150 THE MANDANS. 

small sunken areas marking old cache pits. Map iv gives a 
general survey of the village. In this map the natural con- 
figuration of the land is represented in hachures, while the 
artificial mounds and depressions are represented, as well as 
the simple means at hand would permit, by contour lines with 
an interval of two feet. 

The large mounds are on the outside of the village site. 
The}^ form a more or less continuous chain of earthworks, out- 
side of, and between the two encircling ditches. If Verendrye 
spoke the truth in regard to the neatness and cleanness of the 
Mandan villages, these large mounds could not well have been 
dump heaps as some investigators appear to think. A more 
natural dump heap is located along the bluff front. It is more 
reasonable to identify them with the earth ramparts and bas- 
tions which, he says, were wide enough to allow the game of 
Skohpe to be played upon them. Moreover, there is a strategic 
fitness in many of them in regard to shape and location. Thus 
Mound a guards admirably the approach from the ravine south 
of the village. Two crescent mounds, g and /, would be strong- 
holds in defense of the village. Many of the mounds, for in- 
stance a and c, have wall-like protuberances, which may have 
been extended breastworks. 

The mounds, as may be seen by the map, are of various 
shapes and sizes. Mound a, the largest, is nearly a perfect 
rectangle, except for the irregular line of small mounds attached 
to one corner. It measures about one hundred and twenty 
feet in length, and is about eight feet high. Most of the larger 
mounds are of approximately the same height. Two mounds, 
g and /, before mentioned, are distinctly crescent-shaped. The 
other large mounds are either oval in shape or are irregular with 
two or more summits. 

The smaller mounds are, for the most part, between the 
two ditches. They are irregular in shape, and range from a 
few inches in height to three or four feet. A few low mounds 
are found outside the circle of large mounds. 

There are two ditches. The inner ditch, y, y, y, can be 
traced throughout its course, Ijut the outer ditch, z, z, z, appears 
broken. The inner ditch encircles an area about five hundred 



FOLDOUT 



FOLDOUT 



THE MANDANS. 151 

feet in diameter which is devoid of any larjie mounds, and is 
marked by house rings and cache pits. Between the inner 
and outer ditches there are, in adcHtion to the mounds, a few 
house rings. The ditches, in their deepest portions, are not 
more than three feet deep, though they were originally much 
deeper. A cross-section of the ditch, at the point marked u, 
shows it to have been nine feet deep and twenty feet wide. 

The house sites were mostly in the interior of the village. 
They are marked by rings each with a slight depression in the 
center. After the prairie grass becomes brown, these depres- 
sions are marked by green patches. The house rings vary 
somewhat in size, averaging about forty feet in diameter. They 
are close together, but are sometimes arranged in more or less 
regular rows leaving what may roughly be termed str(M>ts. 

Small depressions mark the location of old caches. Those 
depressions are scattered over the entire area both inside and 
outside the ditches. Some have dropped in to a depth of two 
or three feet, but most of them show only a slight hollow. Fre- 
quently they occur in groups of three or four. Investigation 
disclosed the presence of these cache pits under tlio mounds and 
in the house sites. 

Hefore entering u))on an account of the work carried on at 
the Jku'gois site an attempt will be made to correlate the 
features of this site with the descriptions of the villages as they 
were actually seen. Verendrye tells us of the village surrounded 
liy a piquet eighteen feet high and a ditch fifteen feet deej) l)y 
eighteen feet across. This was protected by bastions and ram- 
parts covering the pi(iuet. We have the ditcli, two in this case, 
as if the village had outgrown its original bounds; and on mak- 
ing a cross section of the ditcii it was fomid to 1)0 nearly as 
lai-ge as described. Digging on tlH> inner side of the ditch 
showed no sign of the piciuot. Catlin tolls us, however, that the 
piquet was only outside. The large surrounding mounds agree 
with the description of jjastions and ramparts. Tli(> circlos 
mark the sites of the round earth-houses, and the small dopn^s- 
si(jns show where the caches described by every visitor wore 
located. The greatest difficulty was idonlifying tlio large 
village square or ceremonial plac(\ Inside the first ditch, in 



152 THE MANDAN8. 

the very center of the village is an area of about the right size, 
but it is broken by three rings which apjicar to l^e house rings, 
one larger than any of the others. lietween the first ditch and 
the second, however, there is a large open space of the proper 
dimensions and unmarred by any rings or mounds (x). It 
answers the description except that it is not located in the 
center of the village. It might be possible that the first place 
was originally the public square, but as the village grew beyond 
the first ditch the square was moved to a better site and the 
old one was built over. Of the cemetery, of course no trace is 
now discoverable, although one of the l)undles of bones was 
found buried. It is not related how or where Ijones taken from 
the scaffold were buried, and so the find can not be connected 
with what is historically descriljed. 

Mounds: — The first work (Work 1) was done on the largest 
of the out-lying mounds (Map iv, Plates xxvin, xxix, xxx). 
This mound is about a hundred and twenty feet long by 
sixty or seventy wide. It slopes up gently from the west 
end for about thirty feet, then runs along almost flat until 
within ten feet of the other end, where it suddenly drops off. 
It is almost rectangular in shape. The west end of the 
mound was divided off into scjuares of five feet, and exca- 
vation was then begun along the entire end, and carried 
into the mound, preserving at all times a vertical face. This 
mound rested on a solid clay hardpan, from which the sod 
seemed to have been cleared before building the uKnuid. 
The excavation was always carried a little below this hardpan 
level. The mound seemed to be built of refuse spread onin layers. 
Very little in the way of valuable remains was found on the 
edge of the mound, small fragments of pottery, a pocket of 
rocks, a pocket of bone, charcoal and pottery and two or three 
pockets of large bones, charcoal and pottery chips being the 
only things noted. These pockets all began about one foot 
below the surface of the mound. At the beginning of the exca- 
vation, from the surface to hardpan the depth was eight to 
twelve inches ; by the time the work had been carried in fifteen 
feet the face of the excavation was from one and a half to two 
and a half feet high . At about the six-foot line the first of a 



Pc<Tho(i\' Museum Papers. 



\'oi.. III. Pi.. \X\ III. 











:H 



^mMi^: 






MIH .N 1) \. r. I Kl .1 II -. \ I I I \ . , I vll 










^a5t<.li^^' 



'iliiiMiiiililMI'liiiiilii 



Ki.ois \ ll.I.AdK .S| I I. 



THE MANDANS. 153 

number of pits was found (IMalo xxx, b on fi;roiin(l plan). Tliis 
one was about four feet four inches deep from the surface of the 
mound. It Avas hollowed out in a bottle-like shape and con- 
tained a quantity of broken pottery and bones; some of the 
pottery fragments fitted together. Over its top was a small 
layer of decayed wood with some charcoal and a few kernels of 
burnt corn, the first found. Traces of decayed grass appeared 
on the sides. Next to this pit was a shallow basin (Plate xxx 
con ground plan) eighttotwelveinchesdeep,inthecenterof which 
wasabviffalo skullfacingtothenorthandsurrounded by consider- 
able i)ottery and bone chips; over the basin was an ash layer. 
A few bone implements were found scattered in the pit and 
basin. Nearly half a bushel of broken stones came from the 
bottom of the pit. On the north of the pit (h) was another 
(a), about the same size, wliich almost joined it. In the upper 
part of this second pit was much lirokcn pottery and bones, 
charcoal and occasionally ashes. At the very bottom of it 
was a human skeleton in a flexed position. There was no 
pottery and no remains of ornaments about the body, but a bone 
lio(> lay above it and another was below it. The skeleton lay 
on a brown layer which may originally have been a robe. This 
pit was four feet six inches deep from the surface of the mound 
and four feet two inches in diameter. It was of the usual bottle 
shai)e. A cross section of these three pits is shown in Plate xxx, 
section iii. This also shows the ash layer which extended over 
the pits. Another ash layer (Plate xxx, section ii) began just over 
these pits about six inches below the surface of the moimd and 
contained a considerable quantity of broken pottery and bones. 
As the face of the excavation was moved back this layer sank 
to a depth of one foot from the surface and became continuous 
over the whole of the mound. Other smaller ash layers appeared 
lower down and a little further in. 

Another pit (Plate xxx, j on ground plan) began at twelve 
feet in, and differed considerably from the rest. It did not have 
the usual shape and continued back into the mound, covering 
a much greater area than any of the others. It was filled 
with refuse in which were easily distinguishable layers of burnt 
corn, bone chips, and charcoal. Another basin (g on ground plan) 



154 THE MANDANS. 

also occurred in this part of the digging but presented no distinctive 
feature, being filled with the usual refuse. Most of the best 
pottery at this point came from the blanket ash layer. At the 
twenty-foot line another pit occurred {h). It contained ashes, 
bones, charcoal, burnt wood and a nvunber of flint and bone 
implements, both broken and whole. Near the bottom was 
a deposit of very fine bone chips, and a number of irregular 
layers half an inch thick of soft black clay, resembling the clay 
of the pottery. This pit was shaped much like the others. The 
ash layer here was about one foot below^ the top of the mound. 
At this point there was also a light layer of soft earth about 
four inches thick. Below this for some two inches was a layer 
of tightly packed earth, and the pit was filled with a conglomer- 
ate mass of rubbish, across which ran thin layers of crumbly 
red earth, burnt grass and ashes. The dimensions of this 
pit were : diameter six feet, depth five feet. At the twenty-five- 
foot line three connected pits were discovered (/, m, n) over the 
tops of two of which stretched a layer of burnt grass and sticks. 
Over all three pits the blanket ash layer dipped to ab(Hit two 
feet below the surface of the mound, and the soft soil above 
contained a considerable c^uantity of pottery fragments and 
bone implements. Just before reaching these pits a series of 
four post-holes {p, q, r, s), running for about fifteen feet, was 
found. These contained the remnants of rotten wood and of 
sticks about two inches in diameter. Traces of these post- 
holes began a short distance froni the surface and extended 
down to a little below hardpan. On this line were also found 
two small cylindrical pits. One (i) about one foot in diameter, 
went down some eighteen inches l)elow the clay hardpan and 
contained hard-packed, black earth with a few bones and pot- 
tery chips. The other was somewhat more shallow and opened 
through a small hole into one of the large pits (n). 

Near the thirty-foot line the front of a human skull 
was found in a layer of loose earth antl rubbish. Just beyond 
this line began an extremely irregular pit (o) containing very 
few pottery fragments but a great many large bones, some of 
them broken. Among these was an antelope skull. At the 
same point and for twenty feet across the center of the mound 




s 



■•S& 



THE MAXDANS. 155 

was a llca^•y layer of soft ashy earth froii) one and a half to two 
and a half feet thick. At the bottom of this was a well-marked 
clay layer; below this again came some loose earth, then another 
ash layer and lastly the clay hardpan. Thin layers of burnt 
material, marked y,y, on Plate xxx, sect, ii, were also found. 
In the light ash layer most of the finds were made within two 
and a half feet of the surface. Near this point the valuable 
material began to decrease in quantity. I^it o proved to be 
very large. It went down to a depth of alx)Ut eight feet from 
the surface of the mound and was some six to seven feet in 
diameter. Another pit (k) was found upon this line which 
contained vcr}^ little, and opened into the large pit (j) at the 
south end. 

Owing to the fact that the purpose of the exploration was 
to get a general idea of the site, it was thought best to leave 
the first mound, after the excavation had l^een carried in some 
thirty-five feet, and to try other mounds of different appearance. 
The first examined was a small oval mound (Map iv, k) meas- 
uring sixteen by twenty-five feet, and not over one and a half feet 
high at its highest point in the center. Half of this mound was 
removed down to the clay foundation, but practically nothing, 
except occasional pottery chips and one stump of a wooden 
post, was discovered. 

The next work (Work 2) w^as on one of the large mounds 
(Map IV, b) abutting on the ditch on the inner side. It is rather 
more circular than the former one, about eighty feet long, sixty- 
five feet across, and eight to ten feet high, Ijeing somewhat 
higher and more rounded on the top than the other (a). Through 
this mound at a])out the center a li-ciich ten feet wide was cut 
entirely across from east to west, the trench was divided into 
rows and scpiares, there being thirteen rows of five feet each 
across the mound. The earth was soft and full of bones, jiottery 
cliips, and burnt vegetables. This mound was likewise l)uilt 
on the yellow clay hardpan from which, however, the sod seems 
not to have been removed except over parts of the bottom 
where there were pockets or pits. 

The excavation was commenced at the same time from 
each end. The earth of the mt)und was easily removed and 
was full of refuse. At the east end there was located, in the 



156 THE MANDANS. 

first ten feet, a large depression extcndino; over the whole bot- 
tom of the cut and going below hardpan from a few inches to 
a foot. The bottom of this depression was covered with small 
boulders, and most of the finds in that section were made just 
above these boulders, the first good hammer-head being dis- 
covered there. In this part of the trench, just below the surface 
of the mound, was found a thick layer of burnt corn cobs and 
other burnt material. As further progress was made, from 
ten to fifteen feet in, the earth was full of bones and flint chips 
with a nund)er of bone implements. As the twenty-foot line 
was ap])roaehed, however, the bones became scarcer and nearly 
all of the finds consisted of pottery. The earth from the surface 
to the bottom contained layers (Plate xxx, sect. i,b, c, d, c, etc.) 
of crushed bone or burnt materials and ashes, usually not over 
three inches thick. These layers persisted through the whole 
mound keeping at a fairly equal distance apart, sloping off to 
the north and south as the mound itself sloped off, and dipping 
rather steejjly to the east. From the twenty-foot to the thirty-foot 
line nothing unusual was seen, though the best pottery was 
taken out there, as well as some bone implements and some 
charred beans. From the twenty-five-foot to the thirty-foot line 
a considerable quantity of good pottery fragments came to 
light, a nund)er of which fitted together. The pottery frag- 
ments seemed to be more and more numerous as the center of 
the mound was approached. An interesting find, in this sec- 
tion, was a small pocket some three feet from the surface which 
contained squash and sunflower seeds and some small Chenopo- 
dium seeds, all somewhat charred. The section from the thirty- 
foot to the thirty-five-foot line contained nothing notable, the 
pottery and bone pieces continuing as before, but in somewhat 
smaller quantities. 

From the thirty-five-foot to the forty-foot line, the finds con- 
sisted of bone implements, awls and hoes. In this section, about 
two and a half feet from the surface, was a mass of very white 
ashes, about one foot in diameter and four inches thick. At 
about the forty-foot fine a pit was found (/), about seven feet in 
diameter and running down two to three feet below the old 
sod level. From the bottom of this pit again a small pocket went 




Map II. THE WAHD SITE. 

Dotted lines surroimd .sunken areas 




Mm- III, LAUSON SITE. 
Dotted lines siirround sunken areas. Contour interval is two feei. 



THE MANDANS. 157 

down into the yellow clay; this smaller i)<)ckct was of rather 
irrefiular shape and contained nothing"; of value, nor ditl the 
lari^er i)it itself. In this section, above tiie pit and some 
three to four feet from the surface, was fountl the first copper, 
a crudely made copper bead. 

The section from forty to fort3^-five feet showed nothing of 
particular interest except a pocket containing about a quart 
of flint chips. A number of bone implements also came from 
this section. Here, also, was found a small ring of what appeared 
to be twisted bark. The surface of the mound for the remain- 
ing fifteen feet was sodded over; below this and above the old 
sod was a heap of hard clay, such as might have been excavated 
from pit y. Before leaving this mound a word or two more 
should be said about the stratification of the? material used in 
its construction. The mouml has a very steep slope down to 
the ditch on the east side, and sloj)es off nuich more gently on 
the west. The layers already mentioned run upwards from 
east to west, beginning near hardpan, and occurring at almost 
equal distances apart. Five of these layers were of burnt 
material with an ash layer just above them in several cases. 
In two places just above the ash layer was a thick layer of 
broken bones. These layers were all approximately parallel 
and between them was the light earth previously mentioned. 
No human bones whatever were found in this mound, ])ut all 
sorts of animal bones occurred in profusion. 

Cache Pits: — The next work done was the clearing out of 
three caches which were marked by three small sunken places 
rather close together. Works 4, 5,and (5 (marked o on Maj) iv.and 
shown in more detail in Plate xxxi.) One of these, Work G, 
prf)ved of very little interest. It went down to a dcptli of 
five feet nine inches where a hard, undisturbed day was 
encountered. The pit itself was filUMJ with soft earth contain- 
ing small bits of bone, stone and pottery. In the hard clay 
bottom were several small j^ockets, one of which contained 
a ball of black clay evidently the sort used for making pottery. 

Work 4 was more interesting. At a dei)tli of three feet, two 
large pockets filled with ashes, charcoal and (>arth mixed, were 
found branching off from the main pit which was lined with a 



158 THE MANDANS. 

light yellow clay. From this excavation came many bones 
and stones, a goofl deal of chippetl flint and some large pottery 
fragments and broken implements, and a fragment of a catli- 
nite pipe. The two large pockets were excavated and finally 
resolved themselves into two pits, giving a series of three 
pits, each joined with the other. The general depth of the tliree 
was about six feet. In these pits there were many boulders 
and much ashes and burnt grass. Work 5 was another jut 
of the same sort, and it, too, had a connecting |)assage with 
a side pit, somewhat shallower than the main one. These two 
pits resembled the others in every way except that they were 
slightly smaller. In this Work, however, there was found a 
nundjcr of rather important articles. Among these were some 
excellently made awls of bone, some well-made flint implements, 
a number of large pieces of pottery many of which fitted together, 
and the best piece of worked bone found during the cxjjlora- 
tion. This is a highly polished implement with a crane's head 
carved on one end (Fig. 11). 

House Sites: — The next work (Work 7) was the partial 
excavation of one of the large circular depressions, (Map iv, /)) 
presumably house sites. A trench was made across the hollow, 
a little to one side of the center. From the middle of this trench 
the excavation was carried in towards the center of the circle, 
as shown in Plate xxxi. The original trench went down to a 
depth of about two feet where a solid clay hardpan was 
struck. A few asli layers crossed the trench, and in two 
places posts and a series of small sticks were found. The 
excavation toward the center uncoA'ered a large bed of white 
ashes, under which was a bed of red ashes. At a]:)Out the 
center of the circle was a mass of rounded stones. One of 
these, almost a perfect oval, was about one foot long by seven 
inches in diameter, and had been pecked into shape. It is 
possible that this was one of the stones used in shaping 
pottery. The average depth of the clay hardpan was about 
two feet, over the area excavated. A nund^er of smaller sepa- 
rated ash layers were noted a little beyond the center, and still 
further on, near the other side, was a depression which proved 
to be a cache or pit. This was cleared out and showed the 



Peabodv Ivlusv^um P.-ipers. 



Vol. Ill, I'l.. XXXI. 




HOUSE SITES AND CACHES. 



THE MANDANS. 159 

usual bottle-like shape. The remnants of posts of considerable 
size were found, and tlicir location is noted on Plate xxxi. 
The pit colli aiii('(l a s^ood deal of broken ))ottery, worked stone 
and bone, and the remains of corn, beans and squash seeds. 
'I'he best i^iece of pottery was ff)nn(l here. It was in fragments, 
which formed, when put to^etlier, al)out one (piarter of a large 
jiot (Plate XXXVII, fig. b). 

The next work (Work 8) was the partial excavation of 
another and better-marked house site, shown in detail in Plate 
XXXI. A trench was first laid out along the outside l)ank on the 
west side for a distance of forty-five feet. This was divided into 
nine stjuares of five feet each from the south to the north. For 
the first seven feet a hardpan of clay was found at a dejUh of two 
feet. The next five feet contained a rather irregular jiit wliich 
was filled with soft earth cut by several ash layers. One of these 
layers occurred at a depth of two feet, another at four feet and a 
third at six feet. The soft earth contained a great many animal 
bf)nes, but very few that had been worked. This pit went down 
to a depth of seven feet, but showed nothing unusual either in its 
construction or contents. For some three feet beyond this the 
solid clay continued and then the base of a large post was found. 
Immediately beyond the post another pit occurred. This pit 
was shallow and contained nothing except a fairly thick layer 
of decayed grass. At the upper edge of this pit was another 
post, and immediately adjoining came another pit. This one 
was about four feet four inches deep and five feet across. It 
contained a large quantity of small bones and many large ones. 
Two ash layers cut this pit diagonally, one at about three feet 
down and another at four feet. Just above one of these ash 
layers was a la^^er of small broken bones. For the next four 
feet of the trench the clay hardpan continued, but over the first 
two feet of this clay was a layer of flat stones. After the clay 
section came another pit of larger size than the others. This 
pit contained the usual soft earth, through which ran two layers 
of burnt material containing charred seed, corn, beans, and 
squashes, mostly too much burnt to preserve, though the 
stem end of a squash was found in fairly good condition. 
The whole pit held considerable quantities of charreil matter 



160 THE MANDANS. 

and a few pieces of chipped stone, some burnt clay, and a few 
burnt bones. The depth of this pit was about six feet, five 
inches, and the diameter was nearly seven feet. Just above 
it, on hardpan level, the second piece of copper, a small flat 
fragment apparently cut from a larger one, was found. On 
the east side of this pit three large posts occurred. For the 
next five feet the clay continued unbroken. Then another 
post was found, and at five feet beyond this still another post 
was discovered. 

From the end of this trench another was started at right 
angles running east, still along the ridge about the depression. 
In the first five feet of this trench were found four posts (Plate 
xxxi). On the inner side of the ridge here, almost in the 
depression, was found another pit. This had probably been 
filled up by the falling roof, for the contents had settled away 
from the sides leaving a large hollow space and showing well 
the bottle-like appearance of the pit itself. This pit went down 
to a dejjth of over eight feet, and was the most synmietrical 
one found. The contents consisted of earth with small bits of 
rubbish scattered through it, just such material as might have 
fallen into it horn the roof and sides. At eighteen feet further 
on a post was found, and in the near neighborhood was another 
pit which presented no unusual features. 

Another trench was dug, connecting the ends of the other 
two and running across near the center of the depression. No 
pits were found in tliis trench, but at about the fifteen-foot 
line was found the base of a large post, one foot in diameter, 
which was hewn square. At the thirty-foot line was found 
the remains of a fireplace. It was depressed below the clay 
hardpan and was surrounded by a wall of stones, which was 
rather irregular, p(>rliaps due to later disturbances. The diam- 
eter was about six feet and the area within the stones was 
filled with a thick layer of ashes. Near the stones were found 
portions (^f two broken stone implements, one the half of a 
large maul, the other the half of a stone axe. 

Besides the posts mentioned, a number of smaller ones were 
found, some lying diagonally in the ground (shown in Plate xxxi, 
with arrows pointing in the direction in which they lay) 



THE MANDAXS. 161 

as if broken off. A number of small flat pieces of wood were 
found near the outer edp;e of the excavation, possibly pieces of 
the slabs, and throuo;h most of the earth removed small bits of 
sticks one half to one inch thick were scattered. These may 
have been part of the willow matting with which the roof was 
usually covered. The pits, in all cases but one. were solidly 
filled in and had a clay layer over them, and it is prol)able that 
they had been tilled u|) before the house was Iniilt. Henry 
tells us that houses were constantly being torn down ;iii(l biiili 
again in new places. The one pit M'hich, when found, was not 
completely filled, i)robably existed at the same time as the 
house. Morgan^ in his description of the house site mentions 
the existence of such caches within the house, and shows it in 
the diagram reproduced on page 107. 

The dump heap along the bluff side was investigated at the 
points r, s, and t, as marked on Map iv. Excavations were 
made in four places and it was found that the deposit of rubbish 
and ashes went down to an average depth of about three and 
a half feet. Nothing unusual was found here, the finds being 
mostly broken pottery, and broken stone and bone implements. 

After this a cross-section was made of the ditch in the deepest 
place at the point u, on Map iv. The original ditch was about 
nine feet deep with a fiat bottom. The distance from side to side 
was about twenty feet . The depth from the bottom of the present 
ditch, at the center, to the original bottom was six feet. For 
about two feet above the bottom of the original ditch there was 
a layer of sand and just above this was a black layer about six 
inches thick which contained considerable charred matter. 
Above this laycn- was a considerable deposit of animal bones, 
mostly of buffalo. The remainder of the distance to the sur- 
face was filled in with ordinary earth containing occasional bits 
of broken bone and {tottery. 

A cross-section of the ridge on the inner side of the ditch 
was next made at the point /". The depth to the original sur- 
face was a trifi(> over three and a half feet, and the earth was full 
of refuse, but no trace of ])alisades was found here. 

' I.,. 11. IMorf?;m : Stone and IJone Implements of the Arickarecu, 2lht Ann. Me\>. of 
tlie Univ. of State of X. Y., on the State (';il)lnet of Nat. Hist. 



162 THE MANDANS. 

The last work was done on one of the low mounds beyond 
the outside (Htch (Map iv, /). The height of this one was not 
over one foot at the center and its diameter was about thirty 
feet. A trench was run across the mound from south to north 
cuttinfi it at the center. The earth of which the mound was 
constructed was soft and full of bone fragments below the sod. 
For the first ten feet of the trench this soft earth went down 
to a depth of from eight inches to one foot where the line of 
old sod was reached. Fifteen feet from the south end of the 
trench there was a pile of human bones indicating a burial 
according to the Mandan method. This was onl}' about ten or 
twelve inches below the surface of the mound. The bones 
were in a compact bundle, several of them had ends broken 
off, and some of the small ones, as well as the skull, were missing. 
Under one corner of this skeleton was part of a child's skeleton, 
in very poor condition, the skull being in pieces, and many of 
the bones missing. Over the two skeletons there was a thin 
layer of brown material resendoling decayed wood. In the 
earth about these human remains was a considerable amount 
of animal bones, and immediately l)elow was a very large pit. 

This pit was not of the usual shape. At its edge twelve 
feet from the beginning of the trench it was eight feet deep; 
under the skeleton the depth decreased to five feet three inches, 
and at the eighteen foot line it was four feet six inches deep. 
The trench was not excavated beyond this point, but from the 
angle of the slope the pit would seem to have been from four- 
teen to eighteen feet in diameter. The earth in the pit con- 
tained a large quantity of refuse, bones and bone implements 
and ashes. There was a distinct ash layer at about two feet 
below the surface. A large ciuantity of pottery fragments 
occurred in the }iit and a number of large and very well-made 
pieces were found. 

Two other low mounds (m anrl /?) were investigated but 
nothing of any value was found in them. 

Time pre\'ented any further work on the site and much 
was left which should have been done. However, a fairly 
accurate idea was ol)tained of the whole site. Two of the 
larger mounds were excavated sufficiently to show their con- 



Peabf^dv' N/Iusevim F>apt»ra. 



Vol.. Ill, I'l.. XWIl. 




LAUCE STONE OBJECTS. J 



TIIK ^^AXDANS. 163 

struction, and two of the large depressions were partly explored 
and established as house sites. A number of cache pits were 
cleared. The size of the ditch was ascertained and work was 
done on all the types of remains within the ditch. The smaller 
type of mound was also investigated, as well as the dump heap 
along the bluff. The only thing which was not located was the 
palisade described as on the outer side of the ditch. 

Stone: — Stone was used by the inhabitants of this old 
village as material for many articles, large and small. The 
larger stone objects comprised hauuners, axes, cells, discoidal 
mullers, and large elliptical chipped blades. The smaller sjx-ci- 
mens may be classed under knives, arrowheads and spearheads, 
scrapers, chippers, and decorated stones of uncertain use. Some 
of the implements i)rol)ably had other uses than those sug- 
gested by this list. 

Although few large stone pieces were found, the variety 
was considerable. Plate xxxii, fig. b, represents the lower por- 
tion of a heavy granite maul. It is in a crumbly state owing 
to the action of fire. The groove is narrow but well marked, 
and is without any protruding rim or flange. The striking 
surface is fiat and somewhat elliptical in shape, measuring four 
inches in its longest diameter. 

Plate XXXII, fig. a, shows a hannner of red quartzite. This 
imj)lement, made from a stream-worn stone which did not re- 
quire much shaping, is divided into two nearly equal parts by 
a well-made pecked groove. This hammer was found in a 
boulder layer on hardpan at the east end of Work 2. 

One crudely made grooved axe was found, the material 
being a hard greenstone, probably thorite. The two edges were 
roughly chipped into shape and the wide, shallow groove about 
the middle was made by grinding or pecking. 

Two axes, showing much finer workmanship, are without 
grooves, and belong to the class known as celts. These are 
shown in Plate xxxii, figs, c and d. They are nuide of pecked and 
polished diorite and are bilaterally synmietrica). 

Four discoidal stones were unearthed. Two of these W(>re 
in perfect condition and are shown in Plate xxxii, figs./ and f/,the 
other two were l)roken. These discoidal stones are of granite 



164 THE MANDANS. 

or quartzitc, well shaped, and measuring from an inch to an 
inch and a half in thickness, and from ai;i inch and a half to 
three inches in diameter. Most of the signs of grinding and 
wear are shown on the circumference. One shows discolora- 
tion on both of the faces. The use of these stones is problem- 
atical. They may have been used as mullers to grind paint, as 
the discoloration on one of them suggests, or they may have 
been used in some game. They resemble the Chungkee stone 
of the Southern tribes. In the Mandan game of Skohpe, stones 
described as "rings" were used. 

The large chipped blade forms were probably put to a 
variety of uses. Some may have been used for lanceheads and 
some for spikes to be inset in war clubs. The largest of these 
bladesisshownin Plate xxxiii, fig. c. It measures about sixinches 
in length and is made of a gray chert or fine grained argillite. 
Shorter blades of the same material are shown in Plate xxxiii, 
figs, a, b, d, f. These are all roughly chipped, and do not present 
much of a cutting edge. Figs, g to k illustrate various forms 
of other large blades. 

The characteristic forms of the smaller implements are shown 
in Plate xxxiv. The knives (Figs, a, g to k) show a variety of 
shapes. They average about three and a half inches in length 
and about five eights of an inch in width. Some are double 
pointed, and some are squared off at one end. Some are sym- 
metrical in outline and others are not. The material commonly 
used is a fine grained gray quartzite, but sometimes specimens 
made from dark colored flints are met with. Many knives 
were found in the mounds and in the cache pits. 

It is impossible to draw any definite line between the differ- 
ent classes of small implements. Thus, what are termed spear- 
heads may have been used for knives, and vice versa. Arrow- 
heads differ from spearheads only in size, the former seldom 
being over one and a half inches in length. A fine leaf-shaped 
spearhead is shown in Plate xxxiv, fig. d. It is made of 
brownish flint. A wide-stemmed, elliptical one of the same 
material is shown in Fig. r, while Fig. o shows a perforator. 

Arrowheads of most of the common shapes were found, 
although they were not very abundant. The material used 



l^eabociy N^viseum Pjipers. 



Vol.. Ill, I'l.. .XWlii. 




L.vitGE c]iirin';ij uladks. * 



F'enbody N4\jse\-im Ptapers 



Vol.. HI, I'l.. XXXIV 




vMAI.I. SIONE OBJECTS: KNIVKS, I'EKFOKATORS, SCUAPKltS, SPEAUIIEAD.- 
ANl) AKllOWHEAUS. i 



THE MANDANS. 165 

for arrowheads was lar<;cly flint. A selection of the different 
types is shown in Plate xxxiv, figs, b, c, m, n, p, 7 and s. 

Flint, chert, and cjuartzite scrapers were in great abundance. 
Some were of the "turtle back" form (Plate xxxiv, fig. I), flat 
on one side and convex on the other. Some were irregular flakes 
with one chii)ped edge (Plate xxxiii, fig.c). Some were roughly 
rectangular in shape (Plate xxxiv, figs, e and /), while others 
were leaf -shaped (Plate xxxiii, fig. h). 

Flint chips were often found in layers and pockets. Near 
the bottom of the central cache pit in Work 5, an extensive 
layer of rod and yellow flint chips was encountered. Double 
handfuls of flint and chert chips were found in various places 
in the mounds. 

Pieces of pumice-stone were often met with in the different 
village sites. They were used, apparently, as whetstones to 
sharpen bone awls, and are sonu^times deeply grooved as a 
result of such grinding. Other stones were also used for this 
purpose. 

Plate xxxii, flg. e, shows a rasp for smoothing arrowshnfts. 
It is made of a coarse yellow sandstone. It is very similar to 
rasps found among the Omaha. 

Pebbles showing at the ends an abraded surface were com- 
mon objects in the mounds and cache pits. These were chip- 
ping stones and were used in working flint and chert, riiey 
were of various kinds of stone, red jasper, diorit(>, ([uartzile and 
sandstone being noted. 

Water-worn boulders, seldom over six inches in diameter, 
were connnon in all parts of the site. They were such as could 
be picked up on the prairie or buttes. Layers of boulders 
were fouml around the fireplaces in the two house sites ex- 
plored. An extensive layer was found on hardpan in the east- 
ern end of Work 2. 

Some of these boulders gave evidence of ha\'ing been broken. 
One showed signs of pecking. This one was oval in shape, and 
ma\' have been used in shaping the bottoms of pots. 

There still remains for consideration a class of ornamented 
stone objects of uncertain use. Three rectangular flat stones 
come under this head. All of these stones have diagonal cross 



166 



THE MANDANS. 



niarkin<j;,s on one side. The larojest is shown in Fig. 4, a. It is 
about two inches in width by two and a half in length, and a 
quarter of an inch in thickness. One face is smooth, and the 
other is marked by double diagonal lines which pass through 





a - C 

Fir.. 4. RECTAN(iULAH STONE OBJECTS. + 

an indentation in the center. Each edge has three notches. 
Fig. 4, h, shows a similar stone object, smaller, and somewhat 
longer in proportion. It is made of catlinite. This has also 
three notches on each edge, but the diagonal lines are triple, 
though not so definite, nor so deeply incised. Fig. 4, c, shows 
a cruder stone object of the same general character as the two 
above described. The material is a yellow clay-stone. The 
stone is rudely shaped and marked. It has no notches on the 
edge. On one face is a diagonal marking, and on the other a 
series of lines, some of which cross a line running lengthwise 
of the stone. 

The stones may have been used as counters in some sort of 
game. Somewhat similar articles of bone were found, one of 
which is shown in Plate xxxvi, fig. r. 

A small piece of the tubular base of a pipe of catlinite was 
uncovered in the refuse, near the bottom of the central cache- 
pit in Work 5. 

Besides the worked stone and boulders, various mineral 
paints and colored earths were found. Lumps of fine yellow 
clay, which may well have been used for paint, were collected 
in the mounds. Small ciuantities of red paint were fcnmd in 
loose lumps and adhering to fragments of pottery. Pieces of 
mica-schist, deeply tinged with iron, may have been ground 
up into brown paint. 



THE MANDANS. 



1()7 



Potter's clay was conniionly mot with in siiuill (luantitics. 
It was almost black, and very fine frrained. Sometimes the 
clay was found pure, and sometimes it had already been mixed 
with coarse sand, made by burning and pulverizing granite. 

Shell: — The shell remains in this village site were scanty. 
No layers or heaps of shells were found in any of the excavations, 
and none were in eviilence in the dump. Thus it is to l)c pre- 
sumed that shell-fish were com])arativcly little used for food. A 




few snail shells were found in the mounds, and a few shells of 
the fresh water mussel, or Unio, were found scattered widely 
among the refuse in the mounds, caches and house rings. Some 
of the latter were also found in a house ring at the Ward site. 

The Unio shells furnished easily worked material for useful 
and ornamental objects, and it is somewhat strange that more 
of these were not found. Fig. 5, a, shows an implement made 
by pointing one end of a unio shell. An implement very similar 
to this is said* to have been used in smoothing and shaping 
pottery. 

'Notes on Canadian Pottery by F. \V. Waugh: 13tli Archaeological Report of tlie 
Minister of Education, Ontario. 



168 THE MANDANS. 

In excavating the house site, Work 9, a disc-shaped shell 
gorget (Fig. 5, c), perforated in the center and incised around 
the rim with radiating lines, was found. A smaller piece of 
unio shell (Fig. 5, e), cut in the shape of a rectangle and polished, 
may have been used as an ornament. Only two shell beads 
were found. One was made from a Unio shell and was disc- 
shaped and about half an inch in diameter (Fig. 6). The second 
was a pierced shell of the Oliva literata (Fig. d), This latter shell 
is an Atlantic seaboard variety, found south of Cape Hatteras. 
It was probably brought up the Mississippi in the course of trade, 
being commonly found in the mounds of the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi valleys. 

Copper : — Only two pieces of copper were found, one a bead 
about a half inch in length, and the other an irregular piece of 
sheet copper with a surface of less than a square inch. 

Bone: — Bone implements were found in quantity, distrib- 
uted through all the remains that were examined. The bone 
articles found may be grouped under two heads, utilitarian and 
ornamental. The first comprises hoes, edged implements, 
grainers, arrcnv-straighteners, scrapers, digging sticks, awls, 
needles and fish-hooks, besides other articles of uncertain use. 
The second group contains gorgets, 'beads, buckles, bracelets, 
and certain finely made bone objects, which may have had a 
ceremonial use. 

Hoes, broken and entire, were often met with. For these 
the shoulder blade of the buffalo and elk was used, the spine 
being cut away and the lower edge of the blade trimmed. The 
socket eml of the blade shows no signs of wear in any of the 
specimens. This may be because it was protected by the thongs 
which bound it to the handle. 

Smaller implements, made from part of a buffalo horn, were 
found here and there. Most of these were polished by much 
use, the base of the horn being worn down to a cutting edge. 
Fig. 6 represents one which has acciuired a high polish from 
use. One of these implements was found in the middle 
stage of manufacture; in it the horn is roughly trinuned, as with 



THE MANDANS. 



1G9 



an axo, and part of tlio frontal bono of the skull is still attached 
to the base of the horn. These horn tools may have been usetl 
for scrapers, trowels, or for j^eneral [jurposcs in the kitchen. 




I'lr,. (i. IMl'I.KMKNT OF lUFFALO HORN. * 

Several ooiioes or f!;rainers were uncovered. They were 
made from the metapodial bones of the buffalo, and show good 




Fi< 



(JOLGE.S OH GliAINEUS. i 

workmanship. Some of them (Fig. 7, a and h) have a smooth 
scraping edge, while others (Fig. 7, c and d) have a notched edge. 



170 



THE MANDANS. 



The socket end of Fig. 7, a, the only perfect specimen, was proba- 
bly covered with a pad, as the bone is rough, untrimmed, and 
shows no signs of wear. These gouge-like tools were probably 
used to scrape down skins in the process of graining. 

So-called "arrow-straighteners" were found in considerable 
nunibersinthe mounds. These are of buffalo rib l)ones through 
which from one to three holes have been bored. The holes are 
sometimes almost round, but, more usually, are elongated along 
the axis of the bone. The bore is doubly funnel-shaped expand- 
ing" toward both surfaces of the bone (Fig. 8). The use of these 
objects is problematical. It seems illogical to consider them 




Fio. 8. ARR()W-,si'u,vlGHTENERS. i 

wrenches to straighten arrowshafts, because in this operation 
only one hole could be used at a time, and additional holes would 
only weaken the instrument. Since the holes in each piece are 
all the same size, they could not have been intended for arrow- 
shafts of different sizes. However, beyond the possible use as 
arrow-straighteners, no use has been suggested for them. 

Certain crude bone tools, worn on one or more edges, may be 
grouped as scrapers. Most of these are made of broken bones 
of the buffalo, in particular the shoulder blades and the larger 
leg bones. They evidently had only a temporary use. 

"Digging sticks," as they have been called for want of a better 
name, were found in great numbers. These are made of the 
rib bones of the buffalo and elk, which have been worn off 
round at one or both ends (Plate xxxv, fig. a). 

By far the most common of worked bone objects found, 
fall under the head of awls. These were found in all the exca- 



THK MANDANS. 



171 



vatioiis and in all the village sites visited. They have a wiile 
range in size and shape; a series of typical examples is given in 
Plate XXXV. The needlesare represented in this plate by Figs. />,c, 
and (I. The first of these is round and very sharp, the other 
two arc flat pieces of sli^'ered bird bone. The larger awls are 
made in various shapes from various bones. Figs, e, /, and h 
are of j)ird bones. Figs, g, j, I, n, o and pare made from rib 
bones of buffalo and deer. Figs, i and k are made from the 
mctapodial bones of the deer, liesides the awls which are 
more or less regular in shape, many were found which were very 
irregular. These were evidently intended for a temporary use 
and were made of anything that came to hand. Fig. m repre- 
sents one of these cruder implements. The awls were ground 
to a point on whet stones of pumice stone. 

A paint brush similar to those used of late years was 
found. It is triangular in shape and is made from the interior 
portion of a large bone. 




FKi. 9. f)H.)ia"r .MADE FUOM HI;FFAL() SMOII.DKH lU.ADK. * 

Certain objects of doubtful use are made of the shoulder 
blades of large animals. Fig. 9 shows such an implement. It 
is thin, highly polished and has one edge sharpened. They 
may have been used for knives and scrapers. 



172 THE MANDANS. 

Plate XXXVI, figs. .9and^,showstwobone fish-hooks which were 
unearthed. Figs, u and v, on the same plate, figure two pieces 
of worked bone which may be fish-hooks in the process of manu- 
facture. 

Bone was made into a great number of ornamental objects. 
Of these, beads were the more numerous in the remains. Bone 
beads were usually made from the leg and wing bones of birds. 
Plate XXXVI, figs. I to o, are bones from which beads have been 
wholly or partially cut off. Plate xxxvi, figs, a to k, are beads 
of different sizes, ranging from an inch and a half to a cjuarter 
of an inch in length, and of varying diameters. 

' ' Bracelets" made from the rib bones of small animals are shown 
in Plate xxxvi, figs, wto z. These are usually grooved on one side 
and rounded on the other, and perforated at one end. While 
calling these bracelets it is difficult to understand just how they 
were used as such and they may have been simply pendants. 

Plate xxxvi, fig. r, represents a bone object, with notches on 
the four sides much like the rectangular stones previously de- 
scribed. This object is flat on one side and curved on the other 
and has a high polish. 

Plate XXXVI, figs, j) and q, arc fragments of buffalo shoulder 
blades wliich have perforations, their use being uncertain. 



Fig. 10. A BONF: Bl'CKLE. * 

Fig. 10 shows a curious piece of bone which probably served 
as a buckle. It is made of the outside portion of a buffalo rib. 




^/r..^-^vyyyV/^ 



Fig. 11. CARVED BONE OB.JECT. + 



The only j)icce of realistic art found is shown in Fig. 11. 
This bone is beautifully carved and polished. One end is incised 
to represent a crane's head, while the rest is rounded off to 



Peabocly Nluseitm Papers. 



Vol. 111. I'l.. W'XVI. 




SMALL HONE OBJECTS. J 



THE MANDANS. 173 

form the handle. The only sitin of wear is on the beak of the 
Innl's head. The use of tliis ol)je('t is uncertain, but it is pos- 
sil)le Dial it was part of the paraphernaha of a nuHhcine man. 




Fig. 12. BONE OBJECT WITH INCISED DECOHATION. * 

Fig. 12 represents a portion of a well-made bone instrument 
which nuiy have had a use similar to the above. This ol)ject 
is decorated with incised markings. 

Several pieces of carved bones, representing various animal 
and bird heads, are reported to have been found in the various 
village sites, but no opportunity was given to inspect them. 

Pottery: — The pottery of the Mandans, judging by the 
fragments found at the different village sites, is one of the most 
interesting features of their culture. It is an excellent ware, 
thin, well-made, and with a characteristic development of form 
and ornament. The excellence of the pottery is the more 
remarkable when it is called to mind that the Mandans were at 
the northwestern limits of the pottery area. North of them, 
indeed, on the Mouse River, some crude pottery of uncertain 
origin is found. South of them, the Arikara and Omaha 
practised the ceramic art, being influenced in it by the pottery 
makers of the Mississippi valley. East of them, for several 
hundred miles, lived nomadic tribes who were apparently unac- 
quainted with pottery, while the pottery of Wisconsin was too 
remote to exert an influence. 

Mandan pottery is mentioned ])y almost all the early ex- 
l)lorers, but no one gives an extended description of it, or a 
sufliciently detailed account of the method of manufacture. 
None of this pottery has been made for many years by the sur- 
vivors of the tribe, but a knowledge of it can l)e gathered from 
a study of the fragments which ha\'e been i)reserved. 

The ])ottery is, for the most i)art, a black ware, allliough 
souK^times it turned chill orange or red from fii'ing. The un- 



174 



THE MANDANS. 



baked clay, small quantities of which were found in the mounds 
is bluish black in color, fine grained, and tough. It was tem- 
pered with coarse sand made by burning and pulverizing 
granite bowlders. Occasionally, the pots seem to have been 
painted with red pigment on the inside, but the use of a clay 
size is extremely doubtful. 

The method employed in making pottery is not disclosed 
very fully by the fragments. Still something can be added to 
Maximilian's account given on page 117 of this paper. 

Comparatively few of the pottery fragments show much of 
this evidence of the method of manufacture. The pots appear 
to have been smoothed and often slightly polished with a stone 
or other implement. The surface of some of the potsherds is 
scratched as if a handful of dry grass had been used to smooth 
them. 

The vessels had a considerable range in size and shape; the 
largest had a capacity of four or five gallons, while toy pots, 






/ ^9 

Fig. 13. TYPICAL SHAPES OF POTS. 

two inches in diameter, were sometimes made. Fig. 13 illus- 
trates some of the more common shapes, as reconstructed from 
fragments. There seems to have been no attempt to maintain 
a series of types. No two pots are exactly alike in form or 
ornament, and all intermediate shapes between the ones given 
are found. This variatioii did not lead to unusual or grotesque 
forms. Fig. 13, d, shows about the extreme of individual 
development. The bottoms of the pots were rounded, the 







^ 





F'efit)Ocl>'' rvlvaseum Pciiaers. 



Vol.. HI, I'l.. WW Ml. 




lNClSt:U I'OTTKHV FRAGMENTS. 



THE MANDANS. 175 

mouths wide, and tlio short nock moro or less constricted. The 
profile of the rim is characterized by a reverse curve. Often 
these profiles have very fine lines and present much diversity. 

Fig. 13, a, shoM's the most common and crudest form of 
pots, such as were used for the coarsest work. Sometimes 
these rude pots were entirely undecorated, l)ut usually they 
had tliree or four encirling cord marks around the rims or shoul- 
ders, r'ig. lo, b, c, d, and /, present more finely shaped pots, 
which show the short neck and the reverse curve profile. In 
iMg. 13, A, the form approaches that of a bottle. Fig. 13, c, shows 
a form of pot in which the neck is absent. The mouth is smaller 
than usual, in comparison with the largest diameter of the pot. 
Fig. 13, g, represents the bowl form, which was rather common. 
No pottery of the platter form was found, although it may 
have existed. 

The ornamentation of Mandan pottery is interesting and 
characteristic. It may be roughly divided under two heads 
incised, and cord-marked. Incised design is neither so uni- 
formly nor so characteristically developed as cord-mark design. 
In few cases can a unit of incised design be extracted. Cord- 
mark design is applied to the rim and to the neck of the pot, 
while incised design is applied almost entirely to the shoulder. 
For this reason incised design is usually found in combination 
with cord marking. 

In incised design the incising consists of long and short 
lines such as could be made by a shell moulding tool like that 
shown in Fig. 5, a, or by some other pointed implement. These 
lines are often very evenly made, and seem to be comb markings. 
But examination shows that the lines are not exactly parallel 
as they would be if made hy a toothed instrument (Plate 
XXXVIII, fig. h). The most common i)attern of incised design 
is that in which the lines are arranged to form a zigzag around 
the shoulder of the pot. A fine example of this is seen in Fig. 
16, and a freer use of the same pattern is shown in Plate 
xxx^■II, fig. e. (Jften parallel lines are drawn, as a sort of 
cross-hatching, in irregular areas (Plate xxxviii, figs, h, g, h). 
In the first of these, the suggestion of an elaborate design is 
destroyed b\- the e\ideuce of other fragments from the same 



176 



THE MANDANS. 



pot. The herring-bone pattern is found in several fragments 
(Plate XXXVIII, figs, a, d, and in text, Fig. 14). The pattern 
shown in Plate xxxviii, fig. c, is one in which the circum- 
ference of the pot was divided into several sections by a series 
of vertical lines, and the areas thus formed were decorated 
by curved cross lines. Perhaps the most regular of incised line 




Fig. 14. INCISED POTTERY FRAGMENT SHOWING 
HERRING-BONE PATTERN. 

patterns is that shown in Plate xxxviii. fig. /. Here a band 
around the shoulder of the pot is divided into triangular 
areas by a zigzag line, then all the triangles pointing down 
are filled with short dashes, while the alternate ones, pointing 
up, are marked with oblique lines. Plate xxxviii, fig. g, shows 
a less orderly form of the triangular area decorated with short 
lines. Figs. 14 and 15 show undecorated areas in the midst of 
decorated ones. In Fig. 15 the middle zone of the pot seems 
to have been divided into rectangles which were further 
divided by diagonals. The upper and lower cjuarters, thus 
made, were decorated by diagonal lines, the side areas remaining 
untouched. From the rest (^f the design, gi\'en on the fragment, 
it is evident that this idea was not carried out in an orderly 
fashion. Fig. 16 shows a fragment having a row of indenta- 
tions round the body of the vessel. 



F^oahodv rvlvisevim Papers. 



Vor,. Ill, PL. XXXIX. 











J,„aacoi7f'^'''f"'^^^<^'"""'''"*"'"""'^ ''■'"^^ 



I^^^He'iS'^-^^*^ 







POTTERY ORNAMENTATION. 



Peataoby >^vise\.in:i Papers. 



Vol.. Ill, I'L. XI, 











5:54**'5^ 























'm 










^ff^^/r^t^tv^>^yyyi^'^^^^^*^^^<^'yt:K'OV>^»t7^^»7/>,^^£^. 



t/y^ l//,Ki>''"'""""C'''--:-%' 




m n 



' Of ^0> ^&a^f J^»^'9'r£/t/> 














i'uiii:kv ornamentation. 



THE MANDANS. 



177 



Thus it is seen, tliat while there is oonsiderahle variety in 
incised design, it is not developed in an orderly manner. It is 
put on freely and at hai^hazard. 

Cord-mark design, on the other hand, slu)\vs much neatness, 
order and precision. It also shows amazing variety within certain 




Fig. 1.5. I'la. It). 

POTTERY FUAGME.NTS SHOWING THE COMBl. NATION OF COUI) 
MARKED AND INCISED DESI(;N. 

narrow limits. Rectilinear designs jireponderate and curxi- 
linear forms occur only in conjunction with them. Sinuous 
hnes were not found, except in one pattern (Plate xl, fig. k) 
where the semicircular arcs reverse. 

Plates XXXIX and xl show the principal variations of cord- 
marked patterns. The cord-marked designs extend in bands 
around the rim of the pot. The bands are made up either of 
simple encircling lines (Plate xxxix, figs, a and b) or of short, 
diagonal lines, often b(mnded by the encirchng hnes. Some 
of these patterns show much neatness in covering up the ends 
of the diagonal hnes by the horizontal lines, (Plate xxxix. figs. 
e, h, i, etc.) All the combinations of direction of the diagonal 
lines are shown in the different potsherds. \n two patterns 
are found to be exactly alike, the number of the cord marks 
varying greatly, as also the form of the profile to which the 
design is fitted. Some of the designs are very neatly put on. 
while others are carelessly done. The size of the cord marks 
vary, — some of the string was evidently very fine, while sonic 
was quite coarse. 



178 THE MANDANS. 

The designs in which triangles, rectangles and arcs are 
inserted are so arranged that these insertions come at regular 
points on the circumference. Usually there are four of these 
points (Plate xl, figs. /, g, h, i, j, m, o, p). 

I^esides the cord marks, the ornamentation is often enhanced 
by scalloping the rim as in Plate xxxix, fig. p, or by rendering 
it wavy as in Plate xxxix, fig. i and Plate xl, figs, e, g, h. Some- 
times a sharp angle is decorated with indentations, as in Plate 
xxxix, fig. n. Sometimes the underside of a band of cord 
markings is bounded by a series of finger impressions, as in 
Plate xxxix, fig. I. Knobs are frequently used in the center of 
the triangular or arc-like insertions, as in Plate xl, figs. /, j, p. 

In Plate xl, fig. a, is a design made by impressing a small 
stem into the soft clay in the same manner as the cord im- 
pressions were made. Plate xl, fig. 6, shows a design appar- 
ently made by impressing a small stick wound with a skin 
thong. It may, however, have been made b}^ a string of shell 
beads. Plate xl, fig. /. shows a rough pattern made by a series 
of small holes, directly under which is an imprint, perhaps that 
of the paddle stick used in toughening the clay. Plate xl, 
fig. n, is a crude ornamentation made by the prints of the the 
thumb nail. 

Only one example of textile impression is found, that shown 
in Plate xl, fig. d. The piece of pottery which shows this was 
picked up near the town of Mandan. The fabric from the im- 
print, seems to have been made of cords which are woven around 
a series of heavy cords or withes. 

As before mentioned, an oval stone, which was evidently 
pecked into shape, was found in one of the house sites. This 
was probably one of the kind on which the bottoms were moulded. 
The pot was apparently beaten with paddle sticks, of various 
kinds, to toughen the clay. Plate xli reproduces several pot- 
sherds which show markings. Sometimes the fragments show 
crisscross markings, as if a paddle covered with matting were 
used (figs. /, g, i, m, n and n). Sometimes fine check markings 
(figs, c, d and e) suggest that an incised paddle was used. 
More frequently, however, the markings are such as to suggest 
the use of a small spatulatc stick (figs, h, j, k, I, p and q). The 



Pcjibotlx .Museum Papers. 



\oi.. III. I',.. XL 




'MB 




li.rii 



UHii)^, 



v\V4r\i^ 






I'OTSIIKKDS SII()UIN(, I'ADUI.K A.Nl) OIIIKK M.\KMN(,S. 



F'©ab)ody ^^^aseum Paperss. 



\<)l.. in. I'l.. \I.I1. 








i^r __ 



T V\^ 



tn 



I'O'rrEUY RIMS AN1> I'OTTEHV DISC. 



THE MANDANS. 170 

niarkin^.s.\\ii(>n n)ui;iily parallel, are either horizontal or vertical. 
Usually the inarkiiifis around the necks of the pots are vertical. 

Sometimes the upper surface of the rim was impressed with 
cords or otherwise ornamented. Plate xlii, fijr.s. / to /, jiives 
representations of the (Hfferent modes. Another kind of orna- 
mentation, which was only slijihtly employed, was to form the 
cdfie of the pot into a series of l)road serrations or crescent- 
shaped depressions. Apparently there were four or more 
cusps to the circumference. Examples of the cusj)s are sliow ii 
in Plate xlii, fi<is. / and m. In this feature the Mandan i)ottery 
closely resend:)les the i)ottery around the (ireat Lakes. 

Many of the Mandan pots were i)rovide(l with ears, lu<;s or 
spouts, the last evid(Mitly used to assist in pourinji' (Plate xlii, 
figs, a and c). A lu<;- is shown in Plate xlii, fig-. }>. Sometimes 
the ear or lug may have been used only as a detail of ornamen- 
tation. Plate XLII, fig. r, gives a case in which the i)re.sence of the 
lug is disclosed by tlie cord marks. Plate xlii, fig. r/, sjiows a 
peculiar spout-like opening which seems too small t<i lia\-e 
served any useful pui'pose. 

Two or three fragments of pottery showing a perfoiation 
were found. The perforation was ])robably to enaljle some 
break to be mended. 

No pipes made of pottery were found. The only other 
article of pottery, besides the i)otsherds, was the ])erforated 
disc shown in Plate xlii, fig. k. This object is about an inch in 
diameter. 

Vegktablk kk.maixs: — The materials of \egetabl(> origin 
in the excavations were nearly all charred and conse(iuentIy 
many points about them cannot be considered. However,there 
are a number of interesting details which coincide as far as they 
go with historical information concerning the Mandan agricul- 
ture. The actual rcMiiains of \'(>getables found were thos(> of 
corn, beans, scjuash or })umpkins. The seeds of sunflowers 
and small black seeds of a sort of pig-weed (Chenopodiuni sp.) 
were also found. 

The corn remains were mostly of cobs, from which the grain 
had been cut off, leaving only an occasional kernel. One or 
two j)ieces of ears with the kernels and part of the husk intact 



180 THE MANDANS. 

were found. The cobs were all charred and occurred in la3'ers 
in the mounds and at times in the caches, being often mixed 
with the remains of burnt sunflower and other seeds. The 
cobs were seldom over six inches long and many were smaller. 
They seemed to Ije of two types, a long and thin cob, and a 
shorter, rather thick cob. The kernels themselves were also 
of two types; a small kernel, rather long, and a considerably 
larger one, almost round. All of the cobs showed regular rows, 
with the exception of the nubbins, which are very irregular in 
nearly every variety of corn. The number of rows on an ear 
varied somewhat, but no ear was found with any other num- 
bers than eight, ten or twelve. The slim cobs usually had ten 
rows with occasionally eight. The thicker cobs always had 
twelve rows. The kernels were in too imperfect a state to permit 
of discovering whether they were flint, dent, or sweet corn. 
The cobs with the smaller kernels had very much the appearance 
of pop-corn. The ears seemed to be of fairly uniform length, 
and in this respect, as well as in their regularity of rows, differed 
noticeably from the later "Ree" or "Squaw" corn of the 
Indians in this region. 

Beans were of rare occurrence in the excavation, usually 
being found mixed with the other burnt vegetables and often 
split in halves. No sign of the pods was found. The beans 
were very obviously of two sorts. The first was a rather long bean, 
averaging about one half an inch in length, and shaped much 
like the kidney bean. The second was a small bean, usually 
about one quarter of an inch in length and almost round, resem- 
bling very much the navy bean. 

Charred sunflower seed and portions of the heads were found 
thickly in all the burnt layers. The seeds of these also can be 
divided into at least two sorts. The most common appeared 
to be a long seed, averaging from one half to five eighths of an 
inch in length, appearing much like that of the ordinary sunflower 
of civilized cultivation. The other type of seed was a shorter 
and thicker one, usually little over one quarter of an inch in 
length. The charred pieces of the heads were much broken up. 

The squash or pumpkin seeds were the only ones not 
in a charred condition, and these usually occurred in smallpockets 



THE MANDANS. ISl 

probably wlicre a haiulful had l)oon thrown. One of the stem 
ends of a squash was found and showed Ijy its shape tliat the 
vegetable hail not l)e(>n of the flat, sunnner squash variety. The 
seeds were of two or j)erhaps throe sorts. First there was a long, 
narrow seed resembling some of the large gourd seeds. The other 
type Avas much thicker through, and apparently repn'sented 
two varieties, judging from the difference in size. One of these 
was as long as the first mentioned, but as has been said, was 
thicker. The second, of the same shape, averaged very little 
over half as large. 

The small black seeds above referred to were found inter- 
mixed with the other vegetable remains in the layers. They 
had a hard shiny shell and thus own wIumi not charred had 
lasted well. The charred ones, however, were in much the best 
state. Seeds of this genus of plants are eaten in South America, 
and are decidedly valuable for food, and. although there is 
no mention of their use as food by the Mandans, they may 
have been so used. 

In addition to the vegetables themselves there were other 
finds of vegetable origin. Among these were objects of bark, 
wood and grass. The most notable of the bark finds were two 
large pieces of birch bark, found together in one of the pits. These 
have perforations where they had been sewed and probably 
formed a part of a basket or box. The birch is not found within 
one hundred miles or more of this region, and the bark rcceji- 
tacle must have come througli trade with some more eastern 
nation. Other finds were three or four flat disc-like coils, about 
four to five inches in diameter, with a hole in the center. These 
were made of the very thin inner bark, probably of the cotton- 
wood, in the shape of a mat and bound around the outside 
with another strand of the same bark. It is very likely that 
these are identical with the stands upon which the pots were 
set, as described by Henry. In one place a small quantity of 
bark flakes was found, and it is barely possible that these may 
be remnants of smoking materials of Cornus. 

The only article made of grass was a small charred piece of 
cord, although burnt grass occurred frequently in the black 
layers, and decayed grass or hay was found as a lining in the 



1S2 THE MANDANS. 

pits. The cord mentioned consisted of three strands, each of 
six f)r seven prairie ,2;rass stems; these three strands were not 
braided, but twisted. 

The remains of posts and sticks were often in such a condi- 
tion that the wood could be identified. One of the largest posts 
found in the house site was of ash, but most of the large ones 
were elearly cut out of cottonwood. For the smaller posts, 
however, the diamond willow seems to have been most fre- 
f[uently used, and it is unquestionably the best wood. A few 
specimens of worked wood were found but none of great impor- 
tance. There was a post, hewed square; a number of pieces 
of planks or slabs, fairly well cut; remnants of willow thatch 
from the roof; and a small piece of wood wiiieh had been 
whittled down with a blade of some sort. 

The ashes showed the use of at least two sorts of fire wood, 
one giving a white ash and the other a red one. The red was 
probably diamond willow in most cases, as that is the only 
common wood in the region which leaves a reddish residue. 

AxiMAL BoNi'^s: — Animal bones were numerous in all parts 
of the village site, not only in the form of implements, which 
have already been discussed, but also as refuse. Many of the 
bones were broken up into small fragments, but a number of 
whole ones were discovered and most of them have been iden- 
tified. There were fish, bird and manuual bones belonging 
for the most part to the following species: Deer {Cariacus vir- 
ginianus), Buffalo (Bison americanus) , Elk (Cervus canadensis) , 
Antelope (Antilocapra americana), Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), 
Coyote (Canis latrayis) , Raccoon (Procyon lotor), owl (Strigidae 
sp.), and Bald Eagle (Haliaetus leucocephalus) , besides bones 
of smaller birds, some that seemed to be from a crane but 
could not be accurately identified; bones of mice and gophers; 
some few fish bones, and quite a number of unio and small 
snail shells. It is a significant fact that no remains what- 
ever of either horse or dog skeletons were found, thus apparently 
showing that the horse had not yet got to the Mandans when 
they lived on the Heart, and also corroborating Henry's state- 
ment that the Mandans at first had no dogs. 



THE MAXDANS. 1S3 

The l)ison bones predominated in the finds, parts of almost 
every portion of the skeleton bein^- found. One whole skull 
was uncovered, besides a number of horns and a considerable 
quantity of teeth. Portions of the ^•ertcbral column were also 
taken out. includini>- the lonu' vertebrae of the hump; ribs, hoofs, 
and leg bones, the latter much broken, were present, as well as 
a number of the large scapulae which were used in making 
the hoes. 

Of the deer not many bones were identified. There were, 
however, a number of antler tips, as well as teeth and broken 
portions of the jaw. 

Two antelope skulls were found, one that of an adult, and 
the other that of a very young animal with horns just sj)routing. 
Antelope teeth were also found as well as some portions of the 
smaller leg bones, a piece of the sternum, and one or two 
scapulae. 

A number of the large front teeth of the elk or wapiti 
were found, but none of the valual)le "tushes." Part of an elk 
horn as well as several tips came to light in the excavation. 

Wolf remains occurred frequently, four whole skulls being 
found, as well as a number of leg and foot bones, and several 
of the last phalanges to which the claws were attached. Three 
of these skulls were broken in on one side, as if the animal had 
been knocked on the head with a club. Two ca3'ote skulls were 
also found, as well as some of the leg bones. I-'rom one of these 
skulls the nose had been smoothlv cut off. 

Among the smaller animals, the teeth and jaws of a raccoon, 
gopher jaws, and several skulls of mice were found. 

A large number of bird bones were not identified but some 
of the wing bones of a species of owl as well as the leg bones 
from a bald headed eagle were found. The bill of some sort 
of crane also came to light. 

The fish bones were so fragmentary that the species were 
not accurately identified, but it is probable that most of them 
were from cat-fish. 

Burial and Human Remains: — The human remains dis- 
covered during the excavation were few and unsatisfactory. 
Only one skull was found and but two adult skeletons were 



184 THE MANDANS. 

secured, one in poor condition. Parts of a child's skeleton 
were found and broken bits of skulls occurred occasionally in 
mounds or pits. The two skeletons, besides being apparently 
of two different types, exemplified two very different methods 
of burial. 

The first skeleton, which was complete, was found under 
the largest mound at the bottom of a small circular pit. The 
skeleton was in a flexed position, hands about the neck, and 
knees drawn up nearly to the chin. It lay on the right side 
and faced towards the southwest. No ornaments of any sort 
were found about the remains, but a bone hoe lay above and 
another just below them; a brown layer, below, possibly marked 
the remains of some sort of wrapping. This burial shows 
nothing whatever in common with that of the Mandans so far 
as accounts go; and it resembles that of the Arikara only in 
that it was placed underground, since the Arikara lined the 
grave with stone and buried many things of value with the 
dead, often placing more than one body in a grave which was 
partitioned into compartments. 

The second burial differed in every detail from the first, but 
seemed to correspond to the Mandan custom. The bones had 
been collected into a bundle and buried without ceremony, and 
a child's remains in an irregular mass were found associated 
with the larger bundle of bones. The skull of the adult was 
missing. According to Catlin after the dead body had dried 
on the scaffold it was taken down, the head was kept in one 
of the shrines and the bones were buried in a bundle. The 
body of a child was tied to the scaffold of an adult, and it is 
probable that the bones were buried along with those of the 
older person. Hence this burial may be confidently identified 
as Mandan. A number of broken fragments of children's 
skulls were found among the other refuse of the mounds and 
pits, but none of the other bones of the skeleton were ever 
present, which corroborates Catlin 's story of the separation of 
the skulls from the remainder of the body. 

As has been said, the two skeletons found seemed to be of 
different types. The first one was that of a man about fifty 
years of age, whose height was 1594 cm. The skeleton was 



THE MANDANS. 185 

nearly perfect and showed no deformities or injuries. Measure- 
ments of the skeleton itself will be considered in connection 
with those of the second one. A table of skull measurements 
is given below, and, for comparison, measurements of three 
Mandan skulls given in the Army Medical Museum Report' are 
appended. 







Skulls from 


Army 


Skull of Skeleton 


1. 


Medical Museum 


Cranial index 


71.4 


79.4 


77.3 


74.7 


Height-lengtli index 


70.8 


73.1 


70.3 


71. 


Height-breadth index 


90 . 9 


88 . 4 


91.9 


97 . 8 


Facial index (total) 


89.2 








Facial index (upper) 


58.4 








Gnathic index 


91.5 








Orbital " 


89.4 








Nasal 


47.1 








Palatal ' ' 


117. G 








Capacity 


1265. 


1450. 


1370. 


1440. 



Figures on nine skulls given by Dr. Boas^ averaged 80.0 for 
the cephalic index. On measurements of 156 persons of both the 
Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, an average cephalic index of 79.6 
was obtained by him, but from the sedation of the measurements 
the tendency was marked towards longer heads, six individ- 
uals having an index of 70, six more of 71. 

The second skeleton was that of a man about forty years old. 
The height was much greater than that of the first, being about 
1738 cm. Some of the bones in this skeleton were broken and 
a few of the smaller ones were missing. The bones showed 
signs of severe rheumatic trouble. 

1 (J. A. Otis: Check Listof llie U. S. Army Medicil Miiscmii, p. Ti, ISTC. 
3 Zeitscluift lur Kthuolojry, vol. -27, ]). ;Jlt7. 



186 



THE MANDANS. 



The more important figures for each skeleton are: — 
Femur. 

No. 1. No. 

Right Left Right 

Length 433 430 471 

Oblique lengtli 429 425 470 

Diameter of head 4(> 4(j 49 

Platymeric index 71.4 63..S 65.7 

Transverse diameter of condyles S3 83 SF> 

Angle of neck and .shaft ... US US 122 
.\nterior posterior diameter at 

mid-shaft 27 26 29 

Transverse diameter at mid-shaft 27 27 28 



Left 



48 
68.. "i 



122 



29 

28 



Tibia. 
Right 

Length 361 

Diameter of condyles .... 76 

Anterior posterior diameter at 

mid-shaft 31 

Transverse diameter at mid-shaft 19 

Index 62.9 

Humerus. 

Lengtli 320 

Diameter of head 46 

Anterior posterior diameter at 

deltoid eminence 17 

Transverse at same 21 

Angle of neck and shaft . . . 12.5 

Index at deltoid eminence . 80.9 

Torsion of humerus 133 

Scapula. 

Length 158 

Breadth 108 

Length at base of spine .... 124 

Scapular index 81.2 

Length of radius 245 

Lengtli of clavicle 150 



I^EFT 


Right 


Left 


362 


385 


382 


76 


80 


82 


30 


39 


38 


20 


22 


20 


66.6 


56.4 


.52 8 



317 


347 


337 


46 


50 


50 


17 


21 


16 


21 


21 


21 


125 


120 


125 


— 


100. 


— 


122 


115 


121 



162 


165 


105 


110 


127 


129 


82.6 


85.2 


244 


271 


155 


157 



the mandans. 187 

Pelvis. 

Breadth 301 292 

Height 217 210 

Breadth between ischia tuhcra . 164 143 

Between ischia spines .... 1 10 79 

,Sul)-pubic angle 77.5 43 

Diameter of true pelvis .... 1.54 125 

Conjugate diameter 117 lOU 

Pelvic index 75.9 80 

Oblique diameter 138 1 18 

Depth of symphysis 42 48 

Depth of pelvic cavity .... 102 109 

Although no comparative figures were available for any- 
thing except the skull.s of the Mandans, all of the other Siouan 
tribes, whose measurements are given l)y Dr. Boas, show pre- 
vailingly a tall stature. On the other hand, the Arikara and 
Pawnee average much shorter. This marks the only well de- 
fined distinction which can here be made between the Arikara 
and the Mandans, as the cranial index of the former also shows 
a long-headed type, though probably not quite as long as the 
Mandan. An average of 174 Arikara individuals* gave a cepha- 
lic index of 81.5. Still another series of u^easurements gave 82.- 
The Army Medical Museum Report'' gives on one Arikara skull, 
75.8, and on four others the average was 82. None of the Ari- 
kara skulls run as low as 71 and 70, as did some of the Mandan. 

Probabl}' the second skeleton can safely be called Mandan. 
The first one, however, seems to be hard to place, for the method 
of burial was distinctly not Mandan, antl the skeleton was of 
short stature. 

• Boas: 0\i. cit., p. 389. 

= Ibid., p. 397. 

s G. A. (Hits: Cliecli List of the l'. S. Anny Medical Museum, p. 7-'. 



SECTION III. 

LANGUAGE. 

The language of the Manchms is unquestionably of the 
Siouan stock, but does not appear to show very much closer 
affiliation with one than with another branch of that stock. 
The Hidatsa is perhaps nearest to the Mandan but even that 
differs materially both in Aocabulary and grammatical con- 
struction. It has been said that the Winnebago resembles 
most closely the Mandan, but from a careful comparison with 
vocabularies containing over one hundred equivalents from 
some six or seven Siouan dialects it appears that this resem- 
blance is not as great as that between the Winnebago and the 
Iowa. 

The Mandans were excellent linguists and we are told by 
early travellers that they were accustomed to learn the lan- 
guages of nearly all their neighbors, while very few of the other 
tribes ever learned Mandan. Such a condition was apt to bring 
about considerable change in the language, and very likely it 
did so. Maximilian was told by the old men that in their youth 
the Mandan and Hidatsa resembled each other much less than 
they did in 1S34. The songs of the Okeepa and society dances 
were in an older language which no one but the medicine men 
and those whom they taught understood. And lastly at this 
time the Mandans in the two villages spoke different dialects. 
The ones on the south side of the river, who thus had more 
intercourse with the Hidatsa, spoke a dialect resemljling that 
language more closely than did the dialect in the northern vil- 
lage. Words in the south village became shortened to resemble 
the more abrupt speech of the Hidatsa, and sound changes, 
notably that of d for n, crept in from the latter. 

Information upon the Mandan language is exceedingly 
scarce and no very accurate or full grammatical sketch exists. 
Small vocabularies are found in many places, but these have 
(188) 



THE MANDANS. 189 

never before been brought together. Those given by Catlin, 
Maximilian, Hayden, Morgan and Schoolcraft have been care- 
fully gone over and a composite vocabulary (see following pages) 
of all the words has been compiled. Several other lists of words 
were examined and were found to contain only words taken 
from the above authorities. James Kipp who lived in the 
Mandan villages for a large part of his life furnished e\cry one 
of the above mentioned persons with their material, and con- 
sequently all vocabularies of the Mandan language come through 
him. 

Maximilian and Ilaydeu both left short grammatical sketches, 
very incomplete, which have, nevertheless, been of considerable 
assistance in the preparation of this paper. 

Mandan texts have been most difficult to olitain, there being 
only two small publications printed in that language. One is 
a translation of the Ten Commandments by the Rev. Charles L. 
Hall.^ The other is a hynm book containing also the Ten 
Commandments and the Lord's Prayer, prepared b}' Mr. R. I). 
Hall, which has been of the greatest assistance in further gram- 
matical study. 

Phonetics: — The question of phonetics in the Mandan is 
very uncertain. There is no full discussion of the subject and 
in taking down vocabularies little care seems to have been 
used to obtain the exact sound, each authority spelling the 
same word a little differently. Consequently an enumeration 
of the Mandan sounds can only be an approximation. 

The vowels were i, e, a, d, o, u, and perhaps il. The a seems 
to be as a in " father. ' ' The e is used as c in " met " or as a 
in German. No distinction can be made between the two as 
both are used in different vocabularies in the same word. 

The i is long as in * ' machine ;" o is long as in ' ' note ;" d is 
short as in "not." A clear distinction between the two o's 
cannot always be made however. The u is long as oo in 
' ' boot " or as the German u in " buch. ' ' The German ii occurs 
occasionally in Maximilian but in no other vocabularies. 

The vowels seem often to be nasalized (koha"te=corn) as 
in Dakota, though careless transcription has failed to note this. 

> Sec Pilling; Bibliography of the Siouan Languages; Washington lf87, p. 31. 



190 THE MANDANS. 

The following consonants appear in Mandan: 

SURU. SONANT. SPIRANT. NASAL 

Velar q - - - 

Gutteral k g x - 

Alveolar - - tc, n 

Dental t d,r 

Interdental - 6 

Labial /) h - m 

TvEteral L 

Sibilant - - c, s 

Also h and w. 

The a; is a gutteral like ch in Ciennan ' ' Bach. ' ' 

The w is perhaps a bilabial, as we find the same word spelled 
tewe and teve in different vocabularies. 

The d and r seem to be interchangeable. The tc occurs 
very seldom. Only one case of the lateral L is known and 
Maximilian alone gives it in the case of the word tasxaL=iwh&t. 

The c is of very frequent occurrence, and the k and x sounds 
are also prominent. The g is rarely used and /, I, f, y, and z, so 
far as the vocabularies show, do not appear at all. The m and w 
sounds often seem to be interchanged. This recalls the Hidatsa 
where there are two series of three or four interchangeable 
sounds. Consonants are rarely doubled and are generally 
separated by vowels, making the language rather smooth. 

Of accentuation little can be said as vocabularies either 
fail to give any accent or differ among themselves. It is prob- 
able, however, that the radical syllable usually keeps the main 
accent. 

Euphonic Changes: — Euphonic changes are a prominent 
feature in many of the Siouan languages, and there is evidence 
of their occurrence in Mandan, although not with such fre- 
quency as in Dakota. In the suffixing of the tense sign certain 
changes of this sort occur and will be mentioned later. The 
negative also seems to carry with it alterations for the sake of 
euphony. 

The Root: — The root in Mandan seems to be usually 
monosyllabic and often of but two sounds, a consonant and a 



THE MANDANS. 191 

vowel as he, hu. But triliteral roots are also found ending in 
consonants, as sek and xik. 

The Mandan is a polysynthetic language and the roots, fixed 
in a mass of prefixes and suffixes and often joined with other 
roots, are very difficult to isolate from the material available. 
Cases of duplication seem to be rare among the roots and no 
certain example of it can be cited. 

Cases of changes in the root vowels are difficult to locate 
also, as there are onh' a few examples which seem fairly certain, 
such as that of sek to sik. 

Rkduplication : — Reduplication occurs occasionally, but on 
the whole seems to play a rather unimportant part in the 
formation of the language. Probably most of the examples 
are onomatopoetic in their origin. 

Such reduplication is found best in nouns as: — knrasisitka=z 
ants. h'kaka=:iitai\ tninihini=a spring, raskeke^zsnn^mer, 
kaka=:Ya\en, ihika:=(n\\, rakana7idc=z\m[\, hokikaka=^CYo\\ . 

Less frequent cases are seen in the verbs, of which the follow- 
ing are perhaps the best marked: — katidirotoc^io shake; waki- 
kinaruc=:to sing; kikidacoc=:io laugh. 

The use of reduplication to show iteration and frequency 
does not occur commonly and is probably best seen in the above 
examples of verbs. 

Inflection of the Noun: — Inflection for sex is unusual 
among American languages and its existence among the 
Mandans seems improbable, though Maximilian gives an 
example of something of the sort which he says was 
occasionally used, thus: — one msin^numank maxana; one 
woTna,n^=mihhe maxxana. 

As a usual thing different words are used to differentiate the 
sexes, or the word for female is added to the masculine. In the 
imperative there is a general distinction in endings, to a man 
one says: isekta:=^do thou; to a woman: isekana=^do thou. 

For the formation of the plural the suffix kerexe or kerrc, 
meaning many, was usually added to the noun; as niann (tree), 
mana-kerexe (many trees=:a forest). One case of a plural by 
reduplication is found in mahna (year), manahna (years). 
Hayden gives another plural, of which, however, the text shows 



192 THE MANDANS. 

no sign. It is formed thus: \eai=ape, \eayes=apic, weed= 
make, 'weeds=zmahoc. In some cases the plural suffix is 
omitted as in ideta=stars. Maximilian gives one case of a 
dual as: aMc=arm, ahdcnahta=ith.e two arms. Pluralizing in 
the verb seems to be effected purely by the use of plural pro- 
nominal forms. 

It might be of interest to note the fact that the suffix kerre, 
many, is very similar to the adverb kre, several, used in the same 
way in Catawba. 

There seems to haxe been no real inflection of the noun for 
case. But postpositic^is were used where necessary, and 
the position of the noun in the sentence marked its relation to 
the verb. The verb nearly always ends the sentence, the 
subject, if not incorporated in the verb, comes first and the ob- 
ject next. The pronominal incorporation in the ^erb usually 
served to distinguish subject and object. 

It is possible that there is a sort of nominal possessive suffix 
ki, but this cannot be proved as the text does not give sufficient 
examples for comparison. Maximilian gives in his declension 
of the noun numank (man), an ending ki, which is joined to the 
noun and is supposed to be a sign of the instrumental. This is 
found occasionally as an ending in the text, and may be a post- 
position which has gradually become almost an appositional 
case ending. 

Maximilian speaks rather hazily of an article and gives 
several examples, but this article, which is theoretically a suffix, 
seems very difficult to pick out, when the postpositions are 
removed. No trace of an article has been found in the text or 
vocabularies. 

Pc:)STPosiTiONS : — Postpositions are in common use but not 
very many of them can be definitely pointed out. The follow- 
ing are, however, certain : ^a=:from, f/c=of, oJi=ito, askac^near 
to, pexti=hy, kucta^^thnmgh, rokta=in, untaha:=o\it of, 
oma A:«A-e= upon. 

They may be either joined to the word \\hich they govern 
or separate, but usually inmiediately follow it, as : — mipextinaka 
=sit by me. Egypt maank untaha~out of the land of 
Egypt. 



THK MAXDANS. 19o 

The postposition ta also occurs frequently as a \erbal sullix, 
thus huruc=.to come, and /r(//a=:come here. In the oppo- 
site sense we have eta added, which signifies motion in the oppo- 
site direction, as: — Rmihptare eta icahuruc=zl come away from 
Rouhptare. 

The Adjective: — The Mandan adjective is found with a 
simple stem form and a longer form. It is possil)le that the 
longer form was at first a compound with the Acrh Av7or=to 
be, but it has been shortened to a simple r or to ic, oc, uc, or 
ac. The verbal meaning does not seem to be always in force 
with the longer form, but it is always pcrmissaljle to use it 
verbally. Thus: cZ/Amgood, ?/!ar ?7ic^I am good, nicihcz^you 
are good, icihc=zhe is good. It is used in the same way with 
the demonstrative as: edcihc^thsit is good. 

The adjective in\ariably follows the noun wliether it has 
the long ending or not, and examples of the two forms occur 
side by side with no apparent differentiation of meaning, as: — 
meniss co//e=:white horse, mewisswand p.s7'/?r=:black dog. 

The plural is not as a usual thing indicated in adjectives, 
but when the longer form is used as a verb the same suffixes 
may be added for pluralization as are used with the noun. 

There is a full system of adjective comparison in the Man- 
dan, attained by the addition of certain adverbs to the end of 
the adjecti^■e. The two adverbs used are opaxadehc=zuu)rc, 
and mihkac^mof^t. So ci'/?c = good, rih()])axadehc ^=hetiev, 
cihmihkacz=.he?X . Both forms were sometimes added to a 
word merely for emphasis, as: — passa"hekoci'iopaxadehmihkac 
=:the most beautiful ri\er. 

Other examples of adjecti\(! comparison are nnikocz:z\vise, 
cirukeopaxadehc r^wiser, cirukemihkac = wisest ; and // ii"c^ 
nmch, hu"opaxadehc=im()re, hu"mihkac=n\oHt . 

The use of an adjective with two forms as here, recalls the 
same feature in Catawba; thus cold is in Mandan cini and ciyii- 
huc; in Catawba tchin and tchinhere. 

Color adjectives in tlie Mandan show nothing particularly 
distinctive and are nearly in accord witli those of most of the 
other Siouan languages. 

The adjectives in Mandan appear to be largely verbal in their 



194 



THE MANDaNS. 



character in that they may be regularly inflected with the 
pronoun. 

Numerals: — The numeration in the Mandan appears to be 
formed on a decimal system, but there are points which seem 
to go against this. The Mandan numerals themselves show 
no traces of the quinary system on an ordinary observation, 
but when it is seen that a number of related dialects show 
signs of that method and that a little similarity can be traced 
between these systems and that of the Mandan, a doubt may 
arise as to whether the Mandan enumeration is purely decimal. 
It must be remembered, however, that the Catawba has a decimal 
system and that the Winnebago seems to have it. 

The cardinal numbers are: — 



1 . maxana 

2. novipah 

3. nahmeni 

4. tohpa 

5. kexu 



6. kihma 

7. kuhpa 

8. tettdke 

9. maxpe 

10. piraq or pidaks 



The cardinals from ten to twenty are formed by adding the 
word ahga or ag to the cardinal, as: — 



11. 


ahga maxana 


16. 


ag kihma 


12. 


ahga nompah 


17. 


ag kuhpa 


13. 


ahga nahmeni 


18. 


ag tettake 


14. 


ahga tohpa 


19. 


ag maxpe 


15. 


ahga or ag kexu 







The decades are formed by prefixing the cardinals to piraq 
(ten) or ampiraq 

20. nompah piraq 

30. nahmeni ampiraq 

40. tohpe ampiraq 

50. kexu ampiraq 

The intervening numbers afe constructed thus, twenty one^ 
nompah pirake roh maxana, twenty two=znompah pirakc roh 
nompah, etc. 



60. 


kihma 


ampiraq 


70. 


kuhpa 


ampiraq 


80. 


tettake 


ampiraq 


90. 


maxpe 


ampiraq 



THK MANDANR. 195 

According to Maximilian the same ending, r, found on tlie 
adjective so often, is also usually put at the end of the numerals. 
e. g. SO=^nahmeni ampirakoc, 40=ztohpa ampirakoc, etc. 

For the number one hundred, the Mandan had a regular 
word, but judging from the text at hand this seems to have 
been corrupted later into the "big ten" of the Hidatsa and 
other Siouun languages. In 1834 the original Mandan for 
one hundred was ehsuk maxana. The Hidatsa is pidaki'tia. 

The hundreds run regularly thus, 200z=ehsuk nonipa, 
300=chsuk nahmeni, etc. \0\^ehsuk maxannroh numpoc, etc., 
I000=:isukki kakohi, \0()] z={sukki kakohi roh maxana, 
WOOz^^isukki ahga niaxauac, 2{)i)Q:=i sukki kakohi numpoc, 
\0000=:isi{kki kakohi pirakoc (Maximilian). 

The cardinal numerals are used like the adjectives and follow 
the words modified ; thus, ten commandments=/omA-sa pidaks. 
The word for one half is ihcanhe. 

The ordinal numbers are formed in about the same way 
that abstract nouns are formed from adjectives, that is the 
syllable ko is prefixed to the cardinal. In addition the num- 
erals seem to add also the syllable hank except in the case of 
first, which moreover is not formed from the cardinal. Accord- 
ing to Maximilian, the ordinals run as follows: — 

first — koonti 

second — konumpehank 

t bird — konahmenihank 

fourt h — kotohpahank 

thousandth — ko^ukkikakohihank 

The S3''llable hunk may bo deri\e(i from iohankc, t\\c word 
for end. The word for last is formed with the aid of the same 
prefix, koihkahce. 

The numeral acherbs as once, twice, etc., are formed as 
follows •,(mce=zxanahrc maxanac,U\ice=^xanahre numpoc, etc. 

Thk Adverb: — Of the adverb little need be said; the 
distinction between them and the postpositions on one side and 
the adjectives on the other is very difficult to make. In fact 
adverbs often appear as little more than modifying suffixes. 
The two adAerbs used in comparison ha\e been already 



196 THE MANDANS. 

mentioned and in addition a few more may be noted; as, 
takbaktoczzzperhaps, horakekusero=:d£iy before yesterday; tenhac 
i=:afar off; mateeomas^a^day after tomorrow; as/cac^near to, 
also used as a postposition; and domapeha^helow . 

Conjunctions: — The Mandan seems to show nothing note- 
worthy in the line of conjunctions, and so far only a few have 
been noted. Among these are kajii or go ni:=a,nd; kaktek^&nd; 
and kacka=zU)r. Maximilian says that there was no word for 
" or, " indefinite pronouns as koteivektoc=zone or the other, being 
used. 

The Pronoun: — The pronoun in Mandan is perhaps the 
most important part of the language. It is of the same type 
as those of other Siouan languages and closer relationship 
with other Siouan dialects is shown thus than in any other 
way. Pronouns of all the usual classes are found and separable 
and inseparable forms of the personal pronouns occur. 

Demonstrative Pronouns : — Of the demonstratives but 
little can be said. They are not fully worked out and cannot 
be so until more text is procured. Maximilian gives us two, 
however, which seem fairly certain; these are owi^this, and 
c^=:that,anditheiruse is illustrated in the following sentences: — 
ed hackac=zthsit is great, antcihc^thls is good. Besides these, 
there seems to be a trace of the Dakota tona and de as in the 
compound demankahe=(?) , and taadona^theBe. 

Relative Pronouns: — Of the relative pronouns more is 
known. There is a fairly long list and the meaning of all is 
practically certain. The principal relatives are teive or teve, 
who, koteive, which, ta, what. These furnish the basis for other 
relatives as well as for the indefinite pronouns. 

Directly based upon them are teweoca=:whoeyer , and taad- 
oc/ba=iwhatever. 

Interrogative Pronouns : — The interrogative pronoun is 
also found, closely related to the relative. "What" or "how" 
is tasxaL. ''What person" is iinkotewe and "what thing" is 
oankotewe. "Whose" is the relati^■e teve, as teve ti o^?'c?^whose 
house is that? As can be seen these are based upon the relatives 
ta and tewe. 



THE MANDANS. 197 

Indefinite Pronouns:— The indefinite pronouns also bear 
a close resemblance to the relative from which they are likewise 
derived. The followinjj; are the known examples ;tanhe or tahonc 
=otheT, ikotui=something, mate we or ivatewe = -dny thing,, 
matewedocka = anything whatever. Their use is seen in mipextit 
matewe xopini tanhe wadakanixim!^toe thou shalt have no other 
f^ods before me. 

Personal Pronouns: — The Mandan personal pronoun 
seems to ha\'e two different forms. These two forms are the 
incorporated and the independent. Of the incorporated pro- 
noun the subjective form is used as subject of a transitive verb; 
the objective form is used as object of a transitive and as 
subject of an intransitive xevh. The independent pronoun is 
formed from the stem of the objective pronoun by means of 
a regular suffix. 



Incorporated subject 
Singular 


Incorporated object 
Singular 


1 iva 


1 


ma or mih 


2 <Ia or $(( 


2 
3 


ni or ih 
i or ih 


hial nunompra 






Plural 




Plural 


1 nu 


1 


nu 


2 niada 


2 


nia or niada 


8 ia 


3 


ia or ia6a 



Attention should be called to the presence in the subjective 
series of the dual, which also occurs in the Dakota, but seldom 
in Hidatsa or Crow. The aboxe forms probably vary some- 
what in pronunciation as Ma.ximilian gives slightly different 
versions. It is also probable that he confused the objective 
and subjective as the subjective forms given above from 
Hayden seem to agree better with the text than do his. 
The independent forms are: — 
I miona 
thou niona 
he iona 
we nuona 
you niaona 
they iaona 



198 THE MANDANS. 

Maximilian gives a talkie of so called case inflections as follows: — 
I mih thou ih 

of me mannan thine nita 

to me mo, rohdeta to thee nih 

from me rohetn thee (obj.) nih 

me (obj.) ivak 
The 7mh and ;7i are clearly the incorporated objects, while 
mannan and mo though clearly connected with the pronominal 
stems are irregular, roheta. and rohdeta seem to lack entirely 
the pronominal roots. 

It is probable that the mih and mci or tva are to some extent 
interchangeable for the first person subject, although only iva 
occurs in such text as is at hand. Maximilian, however, gives 
one or two examples of its use, as in mihnihrotke, I will strike 
you. Also one with the intransitive verb as mannan ihnkidi- 
cihc, you are ashamed of me. 

The first example above shows the use of the regular objec- 
tive pronominal incorporation, as does also wadakanixinixtoc, 
thou shalt not make to thyself, in which da and ni stand respec- 
tively for subject and object. In the transitive verb the sub- 
jective pronoun invariably precedes the objective. 

A table of the pronouns in transitive and intransitive verbs 
follows. 

Subjective pronoun with transiti\e verb: — 
loawarutohc I eat 
wadarutohc you eat 
ihwarutohc he eats 
nunompcarutohc we two eat 
wanurutohc we eat 
niadarutohc you eat 
iarutohc they eat 

Objecti^■e pronoun with intransitive verb : — 
macihc I am good 
7iicihc you are good 
i"cihc he is good 
nucihc we are good 
macihc you are good 
iacihc they are good 



THE MANDANS. 190 

Possessive Pronouns: — In the possessive pronoun two 
forms are also found, the independent and the prefixed, liotli 
are formed from the objec'ti^e incorporated pronoun. They 
are as foHows: — 



Independent 




Prefixed 


mita 




tni 


nita 




ni 


ita or ta 




i or iko 


nuta or n 


uetta 


nu 


niata 




nia 


lata 




ia or iona 



Tlie independent forms always precede the word modified 
as do also the prefixed forms. An example of the latter follows : 

minuha"ke my daughter minuha"koc our daughter 

ninuha"ke thy daughter nianuha"koc your daughter 

ikonuha"ke his daughter ionanuha"koc their daughter 

The Verb: — The verb "to be" is kihtoc and is inflected as 
other verbs. It is used largely with the meaning of " to exist. ' ' 
As has been said the adjective ending in c seems to take the 
place of a substantive verb and kihtoc is scarcely ever seen* 
"To be rich" is expressed thus — wakahdahun, great riches. 
"I am good" is merely macihc, cihc being the adjective good. 

In questions likewise, the substantive verb is usually omitted 
as teve tameniskeric? = whose horses are those? and teve ta 
otic? = whose house is that? 

It is noticeable that to the nouns also the c is suffixed when 
the substantive verb itself is omitted, and it is possible that 
this ending is a regular verbalizing ending which takes the place 
of the substantive verb throughout the language. Further 
investigation with additional text would be necessary to verify 
this however. 

Tense : — So far four tenses have been distinguished in the 
Mandan although it is very possible that there may be more. 
Those noted are, present, future, an aorist, and a tense of com- 
pleted action. 



200 THE MANDANS. 

The present tense is the ordinan^ form of the verb and is 
shown in .such words as, ivapusoc, rutoc, sakoc, kta"hoc, and 
rapanaruc. 

The future is formed regularly, but with a modification for 
verbs with stems ending in t. The sign of the future is t and it is 
usually placed immediately before the final c with its accom- 
panying A'owel, as sektocivom. sekoc and wapustoc froinivapusoc _ 
When the verb stem ends in t howeAer as in rutoc, a doubling of 
the t would fail to make an audible distinction and an s is placed 
l)efore the t giA'ing rustoc. In some cases euphony requires other 
changes which accompany the suffixing of the t as in rapanaruc 
to rapanaktuc, and heric to herikitoc. In this case, however, it 
seems possible that the added syllable may mark a different 
tense idea. One verb was found which did not have the future 
sign but which Hayden gave as a future. This too may have 
been a modified tense; the change as given from present to 
future occurs in the last syllable, kapkec becoming kapkekoc. 
It is possible that this latter form should be kapkektoc which 
would coincide with the other examples. 

What seems to be an aorist is translated at times by Hayden 
as ' ' to be doing all the while ' ' and at others as a perfect, making 
the distinction between the completed past and this, by trans- 
lating the first as " I have done eating, ' ' the second as " I have 
eaten ' ' clearly implying that the latter is hardly a real perfect- 

The sign of this tense is the suffixing of amaka or ama"ka. 
to the verb stem. This causes certain other minorchanges in the 
the word for the sake of euphony. Examples of this appear 
in the foUoAving from ivahenduc meaning "I drink." 





Present. 


Aorist. 


1. 


tvahenduc 


vmhenamamakahoc 


2. 


dahenduc 


Oahendamakahoc 


3. 


i"henduc 


{"hendamakahoc 


1. 


nuhenduc 


nuhendamakahoc 


2. 


niahenduc 


niahendamakahoc 


3. 


i"ahenduc 


iahendamakahoc 



It is seen that the inflection is perfectly regular, the extra 
ma in the first person being the first personal pronoun, the 



THE MANDANS. 201 

first iva having become a part of the verb itself as in wakohktoc, 
wasekoc and simiUir examples. In addition to the suffix, a con- 
sonant is placed before the final syllable to prevent the occurrence 
of two vowels together. Indeed it almost appears as if the 
aorist is formed by adding amankahoc to the verbal stem. This 
holds true with the \ erbs rutoc and kapusoc, with the stems rvt 
and kapus, giving ruta7na"kahoc and kapusama"kahoc. 

The tense of completed action seems to be formed by adding 
kexeruc to the verbal stem, the pronoun being at the same time 
repeated, occurring once before and once immediately after the 
stem, as, imda/miOakexerus, thou hast done drinking, and 
wawarutwakexeruc, I have done eating; from wahenduc, to drink 
and warutoc, to eat. Particular attention is called to the posi- 
tion here of the pronominal forms 6a and iva at the beginning 
of the word and their repetition near the middle. This peculi- 
arity leaves the exact method of forming the tense somewhat 
doubtful, especially as there are but three or four examples dis- 
coverable. However the above gives at least an approximation 
of the method. 

The infinitive in Mandan consists of the verb without the 
pronominal affixes, as isekoc and warutoc. The past participle 
seems to be hard to find. Maximilian gives one example, kuhruc, 
done, from isekoc, to do; in this case the participle appears to 
be formed from another stem. In two other cases the infinitive 
itself is used as the past participle. 

There are two other distinguishable participles, a present 
and an aorist. The present seems to be little more than the 
verbal root thus, ikha" from ikha"hoc, and ratxe from rataruc. 

The aorist participle seems to be the regular aorist form 
without the pronominal affixes. Examples are iseka7tia"kahoc 
from isekoc and warutama"kahoc from warutoc. 

Mode: — Indicative — This is the original form of the verb 
with the ordinary pronominal inflection. There are no pecul- 
iarities which require mention. 

Subjunctive — There seems to be a sort of subjunctive in the 
Mandan the use of which cannot be pointed out accurately. 
It occurs often with the imperative in a command but is also 



202 THE MANDANS. 

found frequently in other forms. The sign of this mode is hada 
suffixed to the verb immediately after the root or after the pro- 
noun if that follows the root. Not enough examples have been 
collected to discover the exact meaning of this form of the verb 
but the following will give some idea of its use. 

huhadata may (it) come. 

ivaxopinidahadaxinistoc thou mayest not honor. 
hedemahadata save me (let me be saved). 
mahadata let me. 

This last form gives hada as a verb in itself and seems to 
mark it as a sort of auxiliary. 

Imperative — The Mandan imperative has two forms, one 
used to women, the other to men. The signs of the imperative 
are the suffixes ta and na joined to the verb root, at times with 
a vowel between for the sake of euphony. Ta is used in speak- 
ing to a man, na to a woman. It is likely that the first expresses 
a request, the latter a command. 

From the verb rutoc are ruta and rutana. From the verb 
ratahosh are rata and rahana. 

Maximilian gives one or two other forms also which tend to 
show a personal inflection: first person, ivarusta, second person, 
warutenista. 

This shows the use of the first person wa and the second 
person objective ni with the imperative. 

Voice: — On the question of voice practically nothing can 
be said. The text offers us no examples of passives nor do 
either Hayden or Maximilian mention anything of the sort. 

Number : — As has been said the number in the verb is shown 
entirely by the incorporated pronoun ; further than this no dis- 
tinction is necessary and none exists. We have already seen 
that singular, dual, and plural pronominal forms are found and 
these are all incorporated into the verb. 

Verbal Inflection with Pronominal Subject: — Ex- 
amples of verbal inflection with the pronominal subject have 
occurred through all the previous discussion and need not be 
further illustrated. 



THE MANDANS. 203 

Verbal Inflection with Pronominal Object: — Exam- 
ples of the incorporation of the objective pronoun into tlie 
verb are frequent, a number ha\e already been given in 
treating the pronouns on page 198 and a few more follow; wani- 
rotkec, I strike you; kisuknihedis, he led thee; numank itervc, 
the man kills him. 

Verbal Inflection with Nominal Object: — This is 
merely the regular verbal inflection with an uninflected noun 
placed before it usually. Such are koha"te warutoc =z I eat 
corn, ptemde ihrotkec = he hits the buffalo. 

Nominalizing Affixes: — Owing to the lack of text, 
nominalizing affixes have been very difficult to isolate, and 
only three can be pointetl out with certainty. Two of these 
are prefixes, one of which, known through Maximilian, was 
confirmed by the text; and there seem also to be signs of a 
suffix, but sufficient examples were not found to make sure. 

The first prefix mentioned is wao or ivado antl seems to be 
akin to the Hidatsa maadu. Examples of this are seen in the 
following: wadorute-=iiood, from rw/oc = to eat; waosinhe := 
strength, from sinhuc = strong; waotes = death, from tehuc :=to 
kill; waoxik := sin, from xikoc = bad. 

The other prefix seems to make an abstract noun from the 
adjective. It is ko, and its use is shown in the following ex- 
amples: kocihc:=t}\e good, from cihc =z good; koahxkereh ^ 
the poor, from ahxkereh =: poor; koivakahde =: the rich, from 
wakahde := rich. 

The apparent example of a suffix seems to indicate the 
nomen actoris. The only instance of its use is in ivanundexte^ 
thief, from wanunduc = to steal. The ending xte occurs else 
where as an augmentative as in mini, water, minixte, the 
ocean, and seems related to the Hidatsa ic 'tia, big, being used 
in much the same way. 

The Negative: — The negative "no" in Mandan is megoc 
and "yes" is ho". These are clearly given in all the vocal)u- 
laries. The formation of the negative verb, however, is nowhere 
discussed by previous writers. The sign of the negative seems 
to be ni suffixed to the verb immediately before the common 



204 THE MANDANS. 

ending in c or the tense sign if it is present, and recalls the 
Dakota negative cni. In some cases, however, it seems to be 
modified l)y what appears to be reduplication, although this 
latter on a more extensive study of the verb might prove to 
perform an entirely difTerent function. Certain sound shifts 
also occur occasionally as in pre\ious examples of suffixing 
but do not change the verb noticeably. Examples of the 
negati\e ni alone are found in the following: unc?arM^fini7ioo =: 
you do not eat, from wadarutoc=^you eat; ivmvakanixtoc = 1 shall 
not have, from wawakaxtoc := I shall have; and wawahenihoc = 
T do not tlrink, from wawahenduc = I drink. 

Examples of negatives which seem to show some sort of 
reduplication are as follows; ivadakanixinistoc =z thou shalt not 
have, from wadakaxtoc=:i thou shalt hix\e; ivaidasikiriixinistoc =z 
thou shalt not make to thyself, from ivaidasektoc ^thou shalt 
make; ivaxopinidahadaxinistoc=i thou may est not hold as sacred 
for thyself. In all these forms there is also a reflexive of some 
sort and it may be that the seeming reduplication is merely a 
reflexive form. Further text might clear up these points and 
bring to light in addition a reflexive, but at present it can 
only be said that ni is the negative sign but often appears with 
what seems to be a reduplication. 

Intensive Particle: — The intensive particle "very" 
seems to be expressed by an ad\'erb, kucoc. This seems to be 
used either before or after the modified word with no apparent 
distinction. In very bad, xik kucoc, it is found after the adjec- 
tive; in kucccihc, very good, it precedes the adjective. When 
the particle follows the adjective the ending of the latter seems 
usually to be dropped. 

Composition;— Derivation — Among primitive languages 
derivation is often easy to trace and this is true in the Mandan. 
The ideas were at first simple and the vocabulary small. As 
the people developed in experience new names were required 
and instead of devising new words old ones were modified to 
fit. A good example of this is lvalue, copper, from which came 
watucseda, brass, loatuc cotte, siher, and other forms for metals. 

Mana, wood or tree, gives manasuk, (mana, tree and suk, 



THE MANDANS. 205 

child), meaning bush, also nianaroxte, forest. Wnradc, fire, 
gives wararakce, firebrand, and warakapidihe, flame. 

Again from po, fish, comes the word for fin, posi, literally 
fish-feather. From the word ivaci, white men, comes the word 
for flour, wacita. Mini, water, also gives a number of deriva- 
ti^•es among which are the words for flood, minisukhedic , and 
for bank, miniivakaxta. From iohe, blue comes mratohe, green. 

Compound nouns — There is no lack of compound nouns in 
the Mandan and their formation is the same as in English, the 
modifying word coming first. 

From ci, foot, and psih. black, comes Blackfeet, Cipsih- 
Poih'nnih, fish-hook, is a compound similar to the English one. 
liird, mandek, Wiih the word for young animals, nixe, gwen egg, 
mandenike. The elm is called bow-wood, manawaraerup. 
For grandfather we get tatecike, old father. 

The Mandan personal names, which alwa^'s had a meaning, 
were often represented by Nery long compounds as were many 
of the society names. 

Composite verbs: — The compounding of one \erbal stem 
with another is not a Aery common feature in the Mandan but 
can be plainly noticed in a number of examples. There are 
probably other cases which cannot be distinguished among the 
long verbal forms, as the separate stems are not known. Besides 
this doubling of verb stems there is also an incorporation of 
nouns into the verb in order to complete the meaning. 

Actual double stems occur in the following examples; I shall 
come and sit down, tvahunawaxkanakoc, huruc, to come, and 
kanake, to sit; \ decoy, waltaxahhuruc,\\iievii\\y, I call to come; 
1 fast, nahnkawawarutenexoc, WieraXXy, sit I eat not ; Maximilian 
gives "to shoot at," as ohxatakerehuc, and translates it, "he 
has gone away wounded;" to sleep is hanaruc, to fall asleep, 
wahanaeduksahuc. 

Examples of compounding with nouns arc: to smoke. 
manacxinduc, tobacco to smoke; to scrape, unknheric, fingers to 
rub; to swim, miniputxuhuc , water to push. 



In the foregoing an attempt has been in;i<h' to present a 
sketch of the grammatical construction of thp Mandan language 



206 THE MANDANS. 

by gathering together all published materials and adding a 
number of points gained from a study of texts and vocabularies. 
Many features however remain to be cleared up and with further 
text material a great deal might be added to our knowledge of 
the language. 

A few tables of comparison with other vSiouan dialects are 
appended in order to give some idea of the position which Man- 
dan occupies within the stock. 



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VOCABULARY. 



This vocal)ular.v lijis been CDinpiled from tliose taken down l»y Cittlin, Maximilian. 
Hayden, Morgan and Sclioolcraft. All the different words were gathered together, 
and were tlieii translitei-ated into a uniform, phonetic spelling, corresiionding witli 
the !iliihal)et u.-*ed in the grammatical .sketcli. Where different forms were given for 
the same word, tlie form adopted has heen that most in awordance with tlie ])honetic 
character of tlie language. This has usually resulted in an agreement w ith the forms 
as given by Maximilian. 



A. 

abode — iwakcuiitiic 

aljove — aketa 

afar off — te"lmc 

affection — paxade 

aim, to — mitaliriio 

alive — nankec 

all — a"be 

alone — iixa 

always — aina"kaliiic 

ambassador — kasedelic 

ampelis (a bird) — olipakotika 

and — kani or qani 

animal — waliokcukkt- 

ankle — tauihliankac or asoh- 

keninde 
antelope — koka 

' ' l)Ufk l^oklxToke 
ants — karasi.sitka 
anytliing — itaskacka or itaskaclja 
Arapahoe Ind.s. — Arapalioos or 

Axixte Xumankake 
Ark (of first man) — maliminittixc 
arms — ahde 

arm bands, of metal — ii"kita"iie 
arrow — mahlia 
as far as — olidatla 
ash — tab.sa 
(209) 



aslie.'i — warae'Uiite 

ask — kiimalixei" 

Assinil)oine Inds. — Hosika 

aunt — kohtmini-kohc 

aurora borealis — wawawacirutc 

autumn — ptande or manaahpo 

axe — ohmanat6 

15. 
l)al)v — sukxamahc 
l)ac'k — impxe 
liackwards — nacita 
l)ad — xikoc 
Had Lands — see land 
l)adser — mahteke 
ball (of lead) — wahtoicnialic 
ball or play ball — niiliptohtkic 
bake — rokinni 
bank — miniwakaxte 
bark — manaa 
basket (women's, of leather) ~ \e- 

hank 
l)at — lialixiiralide 
to be — kihtoe 
beak — paxu 
beans — oniinikekene 
Ijear — mahto 

bear, grizzly niato iiiikiiapiiiiinlc 
beard — hikerukis 



210 



THE MANDANS. 



beaver — warahpa 

beautiful — cilic 

bed — omunkasekof 

before — untiliedic 

behind — nacitero 

l)ehold — lianista 

belly — alixi 

lielow — mapita 

belt — ihparaxe 

berdash — mihdeke 

besmooch — tkapoaheric 

l")est — kocihc 

between — nasta 

lieyond — kuta 

birch — walixoc 

bird — mandek 

bite — nacec 

bitter — pahruc 

black — psihc 

l)lackbird — tuxika 

Blackfeet Inds. — Cipsi 

bladder — idaxe 

blind — istaxedetoc 

blond — pahinsihduc 

blood — ida 

bloody — ihkerrede 

bloom, to — hohsedehoc 

bloom on fruit — ratakoc 

l)lue — tohe 

bluff, a — kucapehckac 

body — maandac 

bog — manixte 

bone — ahude 

both — nompca 

bottle (of leather) — iliduke 

bow or bend, to — kiskoppoheric 

l)ow — waraeruhpa 

bow-lance — eruhjialiixte 

box — widake 

box-elder — mihnxkatalimanaka 

boy — suknumank 

liraid, to — kackec 

brains — natenu 

branch — olixanxa 

brandy — minipahre 

brass — watucsede 



brave — kakahonc, xarake 

bread — wapabci • 

break — pehruc 

breast — taxaraxe 

breath — onihe 

breechclout — mike 

bridge — manaaxkinilmdc; 

bridle — menissikaske 

brilliant (splendid) — eduxtukoc 

bring forth — ehtuc 

broad — pxihruc 

brook — passankcuk 

broom — i"kagicka 

brother — mo"ka 

lirown — tkop 

bud — aci"koc 

buffalo — ptemde 

" (bull) — beroke 
bullet pouch — assohkaxeruke 
burn (or roast) — naxuhduc 
liurn — raptec 
bury — omalixedelierec 
bush, a — manasuk 
buttocks — ihta 
buy, to — kauikahka 
l)y — pexti 
by and by — isakanacoc 

C. 
cadie — moxe 
call — rukeric 
calm — ihpataheckac 
Cannonball R. — Passa"xte 
canoe — menanka 
captive — inisliedic 
captured — ilinise 
carrion — kommalic 
catfish — potandc 
cliarcoal — behxe 
cheat, to — manoxaliaruc 
chew, to — rapsahkoc 
Cheyenne Inds. — Tamalio"ruckapp 
chicken (prairie) — sipuska 
chief — numankci 
child — sukxamalie 
chin — iliku 



THE MANDANS. 



211 



choke, to — uilicoliwaptec 

eliop down — maiuikaseheric, paui- 

colit' 
circle, a — oliUainicUakuc 
claw — unkaiie 
clean, to — ihkixkanhuc 
clear the throat, to luuiikisckuc 
clear — dexe, karacekoc 
cloud — haade 
coat — imacote 
cold — cinihuc 
colibri — manac<)])k()xa\k;i 
colt — u"paineni.s8inika(' 
comb — paiwaxu"kt> 
come, to — hiiruc, kuliolic 
come here — l\uta 
comfort, to — kehapheric 
comfortal)le — ohmanakacic 
compel, to — si"hi"kehde 
complete — waki"koc 
completely — ratakoc 
conciliate, to — herohkalieric 
cook, to — umpec 
copper — watucsekeri 
corn — koha"te 

' ' meal — mapexeri 
corpse — watehhede 
costly — icahehonc 
Cottonwood — manawaxe 
cough — kokeruke 
council fire — kaheruka warade 

' ' house — kaheruka kalivu- 
count, to — pakirihduc 
cover — ahkupoc 
cowardly — wakaraxkalic 
crane — tehreke 
Cree Inds. — Cahi 
crooked — skoplioc 
Crow Inds. — Helideruka 
crow — xohxixaka 
crush — rusi"koc 
cry, to — sarahruc, rataxoc 
cryingalltlie while — ratuxeama" — 

kahoc 
cure, to — kinikolic 
curlv — minimenihc 



cut, to — pawecuc 
cuttinjj; — polikha" 

1). 

Dakotas — Halienumankoc 
dance — wahnape 

scalp-dance — wikskekenahi)ic 
dark — hampaheriskali 
dausjliter — sukmihuc 

" in-law — ptauililiaMt;l<ac 

day — hampaii, kacekoc 
dead — otehruc 
deaf — nakocsidikoc 
death — waotec 
deceive — kauxac 
decoy, to — ■ wattaxakliuliroc 
deer — mahmanaku 

" (black tail) — cumpsi 
delay, to — ohikahunwaheric 
destroy, to — kimixcrec, tedepohc 
Devil (Evil Spirit) — Omahank- 

xike 
dew — lieddede 
die — teruc 
dirty — waratkcric 
disappear — kcipoc 
dish (wooden) — manapaxe 
distant — teha"c 
divide — ihkapehduc 
do, to — isekoc 
dog — menisswarut 
door — bedel le 
doubled — nahtac 
draw — inisuc 
dream, to — xikhedelic 
drink, to — he"duc 
drive, to — koxeiirutoc 
drop — sehuc 
drum — berexe 
dry, to — sahkoc 
dry up, to — rasakoc 
duck — patohe 
dull — sukohc 
dumb — wahronexa 
dung (of an animal) — ehde 
dust — warate 



212 



THE MANDANS. 



E. 

eagle, war — malixsi 

" Iiald — patake 
ears — nakoha 
early — wamampsita 
eat, to — warutoc 
egg — mandeksuknike 
elbow — akcicenahde 
elevation — maaxte 
elk — ompa 

" female — ompa niihkao 
elm — manawareruhp 
empty — okikohe 
end — onakeoha"kte 
enemy — wirata^de 
enough — antexkac 
err, to — xiqalieric 
escape — ptehec 
evening — istundehuc 
everywhere — ekunhealvskewaheric 
eyelid — istarapxe 
eyes — ista 

explain, to — ikikuhntec 
express, to — ihkastatue 

F. 

face — estah 
fade, to — daxiliduc 
fall, to — dopxec 
fan — ilikerehedite 
far — ruhxedeta 

fasting — nahnkawawarutenexoc 
fat — sihnde 
' ' melted — ilikeri 
father — tate 
fear — wohkaraxka 
feather — si 

' ' headdress — wokiruc 
feel — packatuc 
female (of an animal) — milikac, 

mika 
fetch — kitahuc, kixkararuc 
few — sankac 
file, a — watuciwipuci 
fight, to — sahndiic 
fin — posi 



find, to — onopohc 
fingers — unkahe 

" first — unkamihe 

" middle — unknatkakanaxka 
" fourtli — unknatsemingke 
" little — unkniingke 
fire — warade 
firebrand — wararakce 
fish — po 

" to — pohrupcikohc 
fislier (a bird) — iitikpsi 
fish-hook — poikinnih 
fist — o"kirasanake 
flank (of the body) — dopicanhe 
flat — pcilide 

flatter, to — ihkiriahkawacuc 
flea — pecki 
flesh — oro 
flint — mahikcuke 
flood, to — minisukhedic 
flour — waeita 
flower — osedehe 
fly, a — hamparaka 

' to — kikarehduc 
foam — puxte 
fog — masihc 
follow — waxaliuc 
food — worute 
foolish — oxkac 
foot — ci 

forehead — ithake 
forest — manaroxte 
forget, to — ikihanxikac 
forks (of a tree) — manaokisa"ka 
foul — natkaxihpoc 
fox — irute 

" gray — hirutcote 

" red — hirutse 

" black — hirutpsih 

" prairie — ohxa 
free — wainihsinixoc 
freeze — ktahohc 
friend — manuka 
frog — psanka 
frost — istunhewahetuhc 
full — oliihc 



THE MANDANS. 



213 



G. 

gall — waxsihde 

gay-colored — puhsc 

girl — sukmilie 

gloves — ogixitike 

go, to — dehuc 

go forth — huhketa 

God — Omaliank Xuiiuiukci 

gold — watacisidegocikeric 

good — cihc 

goose — mi ha" 

" wild — miha"kcukc 

grandfatlier — tatecike 

graudniotlier — nancike 

Grand River — Waracunt Ptassahe 

grass — xanxe 

' ' dried (hay) — xanxesakoc 
' ' sliarp (thistles) — xancixena 

gray — xote, cote 

grease — ikeri 

great — xtec 

Great Spirit — Maxopinita 

green — wiratohe 

groan, to — inihe 

ground — manpeteroh 

grow, to — inihnduo 

growl, to — xanahhahoc 

gull — ixtikpsih 

gun — eruhpa 



H. 

hail — rakanande 

liail, to — rapanaruc 

liair — pahin 

hairless — paheserokor 

hair ornament — italiwacungko 

half — ihxanhe 

hand — onka 

handsome — cinacuo 

liard — kahsee 

hark — ha°ta 

hate, to — woratteliuc 

have, to — wakahktoc 

hawk — teta"he 

he — i. ih 



head — pan 

liead-ache — panahruc 

liead-dress (of featliors) — malixsi 

akuhliacka 
head ornament — i)a"okatkai)e 
hear, to — waec 
lieart — natka 
lieat, to — manasinkoc 
lieaven — xaretohoc, niaxopeni- 

omanke 
heavy — t'kac 
heel — cirute 
help, to — olitawasakup 
hereafter — ha"ka 
hide, to — axawehc 
high — wahkoruf 
highlands — mahankwaihkoruf 
liill — oparace 
liist or hush — ihampta 
hoarse — hohxikoc 
liole, caAity — opohpur 
lioUow — xowokoc 
hoof — cahhe 
hope, to — iwatehruc 
horns — anse 

liorse — meniss or umpanipniss 
hot — dsacoc 
liouse — oti 
hunger, to — waruhtec 
hunt, a — cante 

" to — wahnundehuc or ran- 

terehue 
hunter — kacanteka 
luirrah — ukahe 
hurricane — cextec 
husband — ihero 



ice — xode 
in — rokta 
inquire — kimaxec 
intoxicate, to — russidiliruc 
iron — watucemahe 
island — witka 
it — unt 
itch — ciruha 



214 



THE MANDANS. 



jaw — 


dohiiupa 


joy — 


nettkacic 




K. 


kettle 


— biruxe 


kettle-tender — kapexka 


kidneys — piksukeli 


kill — 


teheruc 


kindle 


— rapteheric 


kinikineck — manasaxka 


Kiowa Inds. — Kaiwa 


knee - 


— i"ta or sa])axe 


knife - 


— ma" hi 


knock 


— wahuiide 


know, 


to — iliwahekoe 



lake — minixte 
lame — onindexikoc 
lament, to — nahdeirataliur 
lance — manahiterukcuke 
land — maank 

Bad Lands — maxiki 
lash, to — karaparacuc 
last race (in Okeepa) — ehkenah- 

kanahpik 
late — hapetepanic 
laugh — kikidacoc 
lay, to — maklierehc 
lead — watucamahe (Cf. iron) 
leader (of a war party) — karok- 

kanakah 
leap, to — pedehc 
leather (dressed) — wapa"piimac- 

ote 
leaves — manape 
left, on the — nususkac 
leg — dohka 
leggings — - wapa"piliu"ci 
level — kahosta, opcidecio 
lie, to — cehekohr 
life — nankec 
lift, to — ruhxopkac 
light — idehuc 
light, to — ilidexewaliaric 



lightning — xeninde 

like, to — watihkidasuc 

lips — ihxdopxi 

listen to, - — minnakocwakerupcec 

Little Missouri R. — Mantaktcuka 

live, to — inihuc 

liver — pi 

log — rnanaite 

long — hacka 

love, to — paxare 

love sticks — mihhirucekehkaruc 

lungs — koppelik 

lynx — matoxka, cuntepuse 

M. 

magpie — wilikxakxeke 

man — numank 

mankind or people — numankalikec 

many — hanktec 

master of the Okeepa — okipa- 

kasika 
meal (Indian) — koha°te gatiriki 
meat — maskape 
medicine — xopinic 

lodge — tixopinic 
' ' feast — maxopinicwahedic 
medicine-man — numankxopinic 
melt, to — racedelic 
midnight — istunatoc 
mine — wawakahruc 
mink — monika suntike 
mirror, a — ihmi"kiec 
miss, to — kakaho"c 
Missouri R. — Mantahe Passahe 
moccasins — liumpa 
mole — maxtopka 
money — okihkikidasuc 
moon — istamenahke 
moose — paxuptaptax 
more — opaxedehc 
morning — mampsita 

" early in — wamampsita 
mortar — ipeke 
most — mihkac 
mother — hu°de 

' ' in-law — ptohinix 



THE MANDANS. 



215 



mountain — niaankxtec, oparacxtoc 

mouse — mihtike 

nioutli — ihe 

much — kerexe, hunc 

mud — tuntukoc 

Muddy R. (Platte) — Matulnitu 

Passahe 
mule — cumpsimeniss 
murder — tehruc 
muskrat — cantcuke 
Musselshell R. — Tohki Passahe 

N 
nails — onkahe 
name — dase 

nape of the neck — nahkute 
narrow — kcukoc 
navel — doptasu 
near — askac 
neck — itaenu 
necklace — warapeni"\(' 

" of bears' claws — malito- 

onknapinihude 
needle — mihstuhereohoix'tuhc 
negros — wacipsi 
nest — taxande 
net, fish — poikulinde 
nettle — xa"higanade 
never — mekimikoc 
new — nankac 
niglit — estogr 
night-jar — pihska 
no — megoc 
noon — liampenatoc 
north — misiahankta 
nortlieast — misilianktaro|)uc- 

aliankta 
northwest — agahanktarotamisa 

iiankta 
nose — paiiu 
nostril — pahxusuh 
nothing — mikska, niikohc 
now — naka 
nude — ikarasuninakoc 



oak 



(). 
inanaitahu 



oliscure — ihinikoe 

of or from — ta 

oh ! — ca ! 

old — xihoc 

old man — waratohkaxihoc 

old woman — rokankaxihen 

Omaha Inds. — Ohmaha 

once — xanahremaxanac 

one or the other — kotewektoc 

open — rupcukoc 

opened — rupcuk 

other — tahonc 

otter — pehxtekeh 

Ottoelnds. - Olito 

outside — matinda 

oversleep, to —- owakinat('kahuiihu( 

owl — ixixe 

P. 
paddle — ipaxaka 
pain — wahuhdenahduc 
paint over, to — wakapusoc 
pair — nupca 

palate — nutiskeokissangka 
l)ale, to — sterukeceli 
panther — cunteliacka 
parfleche — wakexde 
part — okape 
pasture — pokanalilnic 
path — nanko 

Pawnee Inds. — Xarateiiunianke 
peace — herohkalieric 
peas — omeniasamakeri 
pelican — nutkuxte 
l)eople — wakahde 
|)('pper — waparepsi 
perhaps - tuchaktoc 
pig — wacitamato 
pigeon, wild waniwitkcukc 
jjrnch, to - ruiicknpuc 
pine — manaxopini 
pipe — tcudka, ihkinkosuhe 
plain — xahosti! 
plant, to — wahkihcdcic 
play, to — menixeni 
" a — kehni 



216 



THE MANDANS. 



play, (of women with ball) - — mili- 

ptotke 
play, (Tchungkee) — Skohpe 
plover — miniswakahe 
pluck' to — paxke 
pointed — cihuc 
pole-cat — co"kte 
poniine blanche — niahe 
pond — minixedoc 
poor — akarihe 
porcupine — pahi 
pot, of clay — berexe 
potato — omenikatekxteqeri 
powder (gun) — waracunte 
prairie — okaraxta 
precipice — pehuc 
pregnant — ehxixte 
proud — tahuixtecihkeric 
pulse — katinktinkkanac[ic 
pumpkin — kode 

" (uncooked) — kodeseharutoc 
pupil (of the eye) — istarupxe 
pusli — putkec 

put in the cache, to — nioxdarah- 
koc 

Q. 

queue — pahinokskec 

(juiet — hapoeherohnknunihuc 

quirt — ihkaparace 

quiver — ixtike 

R. 

, rabbit — maxtike 

race — ptihi°kikeruc 

rain — xehuc 

" to — haiduc 

rainbow — xehikuhnde 

Rampart Creek — Manahmeni Pas- 
sahe 

rat — mihtikxte 

rattle — ihnade 
' raven — kaka 

red — ■ sukse, sehc, se 

redden, to — stasehereh 

reed — wihpuhde 

reek — wiha 

refuse, to — rulikahuc 



returned — kiride 

revenge, to — tauihcahetunc 

ribs — duthuhde 

rich people — kowakahdeluuic 

ring, to — nihe 

ripe — manabihdukeilikamenihude 

river — passahe, passa"lie 

robe — maliitu, mihihe 

robin — mandeka"ka 

rock — misanake 

' ' large — misanakextec 

' ' (clift") — ihcancekeh 
Rocky Mts. — Mihnde Manke 
roe (fish) — ponika 
root — manahisse 
rosin — ohruckop 
rot, to — terrepoc 
round — sanakohc 
run — pteliuc 



sack (of skin) — ihwatarake 

sacrifice — wapaci 

saddle, of a horse — menissaganake 

saliva — oksohke 

salt or sugar, to — skuhoc 

salt or sugar — w^askucote 

sand — mapucakohc 

sandstone — wipuci 

sasli — ixparake 

scaffold, for dead — ohmaxe, macotc 

scale — posi 

scalp — pandopxi 

scalp-dance — pandopxinapic, wihs- 

kekenahpic 
scar — oxatuhc 
scent, to — ihkameninduc 
scrape — onkaheric 
scraper, for hides — ihwadipka 
sea — minikerre 
seat — ita 
secretly — axawehc 
see — wahec 
shadow — ahkunc 
shake, to — katidiricuc 
shallow — minipsikac 



THE MANDANS. 



217 



sharp — cihuc 

shave, to — hikirukes 

she — ih 

sheep (bighorn) — a"saxte 

shield — wahki 

shin bone — dopkahge 

ship — menankaxte 

shirt — imacote 

" buckskin — wapanhi imacote 
shiver, to — kaxolikaharawahankic 
shoot, to (with gun) — eruhpakahte 
" " (with bow) — mananah- 
nihnduc 
short — • sanakoc 
shot pouch — watuceduke 
shoulder — akit 
show, to — hehmenihedic 
shrub — manasuke 
shut against, to — ikisanpac 
sick — ahxenaduc 
sieze — wacakoc 
silver — watucocote 
sinew — hise 
sing, to — wakikinaruc 
sister — tamixena 

' ' (eldest) — menuke 

' ' (youngest) — ptanka 
sit, to — kikanake 
skin — dopxi 
skin lodge — tihinkoti 
sledge — manawiratohe 
sleep, to — hanaruc 

' ' to fall to — wahanaeduksan- 
huc 
sleepy — hanaruk 
slide, to — pacihuc 
small — xamalie 
smallpox — xedepe 
smoke — hihuc 

" to — manachilinduc 
smooth — sa"hic 

" to — kasa"hic 
Snake or Shosiionc Inds. — Wah- 

kiruxkanumanke 
snake — wahxkeruxka 

' ' rattle — mataxopini 



sneak upon, to - xcruhradchuc 

snipe — rtiarexsepaguxa"xska 

snow — wahe 

snow-shoes — manahumpo 

soldier — kawakarakaxe 

something — ikotui 

son — konike 

son-in-law — roliliankoc 

sour — liaruc 

spark — waraiiihka 

speak — rolidec 

spear — manaitirutcuke 

spirits or ghosts — munolieka 

spoon (of horn) — manse 

spread, to — pxiheric 

spring, to — skec 

spring, a — miiiihini 

spring (season) — behinunde 

spy out, to — oksolikuc 

squash — rode 
squint — istakxekohc 
stab, to — rapec 
stain, to — ahksehuc 
stars — xkaka 

" shooting — rokankadclnic 
steal — wanunduc 
step-father — ptutt 
step-mother — ptehinx 
stick or pole — manakcuke 
stingy — cirukoc 
stirrup — menissiwaxungke 
stomach or belly — • taxaraxe 
stone — • misanake 

' ' large — mindextec 
stone (of a fruit) — tsuhnta 
stop up, to — patarokoc 
storm — hamppxikoc (a bad day) 
straight — cohruc 
stream — minixcakoc 
strike, to — rotkec 
strong — sinhuc 
struggle, to — ralipuc 
stump — manahuta 
sugar (white) — waskucote 
summer — raskeke 
surprise — walictcx 



218 



THE MANDANS. 



swallow, to — ocaropoc 
swan — madexopni 
sweat, to — dasi"kohc 
sweep, to — ipkukicuc 
sweet — skulioc 
swift — katucoc 
swim, to — ihwaxahac 
swollen — pahoc 
sun — menahka 

T. 

tail — conte 

tallow — sinde 

tan (or dress), to — ruhintuc 

tangle up, to — ihkirumenic 

Tattooed Face (village name) - 
toppe 

teach, to — ikikuhnta 

tears — istaminilnihrue 

tear out, to — packe 

' ' down, to — ohsehruc 
' ' up, to — ruxa"koc 

testicle • — asutka 

Teton R. — Minixte Passahe 

that — e^ 

thaw — racedelmc 

there — etta 

thej^ — iona or ihetta 

thick — xtec 

thief — wanundexte 

thigh — dokoc 

thin — pampihc 

think — - wapucide, wapusoc 

this — ant 

throat — nutiske 

throat, sore — itaenunahruc 

throw out, to — kaxerutoc 

tliumb — onka 

thunder — xeinihe 

tickle — ruksiksikuc 

tie, to — kaskec 

tinder — niihkade 

tired — iwahatec 

tiresome — xehruc 

itmouse — patahpsi 

to — oil 



toad — hatka 
tobacco — manaca 

' ' (mixed with cornus) — man- 
acotkicxe 
tobacco pouch — manacedoke 
to-day — ehampe 
toe — cipa 

' ' (second) — cihapa 
toe (smallest) — cinika 
tomahawk — axkenkse 

' ' of stone — mihkaske 

' ' of wood — manapauice 
to-morrow — mahtke 
day after to-morrow — mahtke oh- 
ma esta 
His- tongue — desike 
tooth — hi 

toothache — hinahi-uc 
top — mahakahgitta 
tough, sticky — kedehruc 
trade, to — wikaruc 
trail — onihnde 
trap or fall — ahxkataxka 
travois, a — menissican 
tree — manaininduc 
tremble, to — katidericuc 
true — tkucoc 
turkey — marusi 

" cock, wild — malinsi 

' ' Ijuzzard — ruhahde 
turn around, to — kiptahanikusoc 
turnip — mahoc 
turtle — kipsa"de 
twice — xanahrenumpoc 
twist — mihnuptakohc 
twisted — kaminic 

U. 
ugly — xikanacoc 
uncle — ratode 
under — mahpita 
unfruitful — ohromikolic 
unhealth}' — wahcixihc 
unripe — canhohc 
upon — akia 
urine — dexe 



THE MANDANS. 



219 



valley — owakope 
vein — iduke 
vemiilion — wahsap 
very — kucoc 
village — mihti 
^^ne — liachude 

W. 
wait, to — kihahnakoc 
wake, to — kitahruc 
walk — ninduc 
war-club — mixaske 
war-dance — kiruksahnapic 
war-hoop — ceddekohc 
warm — dadecuc 
warrior — kiraksanxarakac 
wash, to — kiruskikuc 
watch, to — iwakcuntuc 
water — mini 
water jar — minimihnde 
wax — ohkerucecipkaohdeke 
we — nu or nuona 
weak — ahikoc 
weasel — malixpax 
wedge (of wood) — ■ manakakihlie 
weed — mahe 
wet — skapoc 
what (relative) — ta 

' ' (interrog.) — tackaL 
what thing — aankotewe 
what person — iinkotewe 
which — kotewe 
whirlpool (in water) — niiniruh- 

menicka 
whiskey — minipahde 
whistle — ihkoce 
white — cote or cotte 
white buffalo — wokada 



White Earth R. — minicote passahe 

white men ■ — ^Naci 

wlio — teve or tewe 

wicked (hated) — xikoc 

wife — murse or kons 

willow — haxsehuhde 

wind — ehe 

windpipe — inihe 

wing — apxac 

winter — mahna 

wish, to — iteruc 

within — Icucta 

without — akeha 

wolf (grey) — liarrata 

' ' prairie (coyote) — ceheke 
woman — mihe 
woodpecker — tocka 
work, to — waisekoc 
worm — waixirika 
wrap up, to — ikikahmenic 
wrinkle — sihpoc 
write, to — kapusoc 
writing — kapuse 



yawn — ixbedehruc 
year — mahna 
years — manahna 
yellow — pside 
Yellowstone R. — Mihsi 
j'es — ho" 
yesterday — xodake 

" day before — horakekusero 
yolk (of an egg) — mandeksukniika- 

kuhctaosiida 
you — da or da 
young — xamahoc 

' ' the (of animals) — konika 



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